Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Transportation plays a large role in the Northwest Territories when it comes to taking care of our land and our environment, and we have both trucks that come into our communities that are road-accessible, that come in generally full and leave empty. We also have MTS, which barges in product to our communities, and sometimes leaves empty.
Does ENR currently work with Infrastructure to see how we can make sure that we are leveraging these transportation means effectively, to make sure that nothing is going back empty and to also make sure, if there is potential for us to put waste from communities into these trucks or onto MTS, that we're taking advantage of that? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, to MTS. We work with them. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you. Is making sure that we're using trucks that are coming into communities, to the best of our ability, to make sure that we don't have vehicles that are coming in for government purposes, leaving empty, are we leveraging that medium, as well? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For further detail and very specific to what the Member is asking, with your permission, I'll ask the deputy minister to provide that information. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Deputy Minister, Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I can speak specifically to the barging. Many of our communities in the Northwest Territories have stockpiles of hazardous waste. We have partnered with Infrastructure to ship out, using the barges, hazardous waste stockpiles from communities. We could definitely look into the trucking aspect more, but we've been focusing on the hazardous waste and the barges to date. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. How has ENR leveraged the on-the-ground expertise of different private businesses in order to help solve some of the landfill challenges in some of our remote communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For that detail, I'll ask my deputy minister to provide that information. Thank you.
Deputy Minister, Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe some of that work still needs to be done. What we have are some advisory committees that involve communities, as well as another advisory committee that involves businesses, and others that are interested in waste reduction, and the solid waste aspect of it, we're working towards under the implementation of that waste resource management strategy that I discussed earlier. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I guess more of a comment. There are definitely businesses within the North that want to be able to share knowledge and expertise with communities and see the value of making sure that we're all as green as we possibly can be, and so there are people out there who would really like to be able to participate in stuff like this. My last question is in regard to banning single-use plastics and how the federal government has a goal of attaining that by 2021. I'm wondering where we are as a government to be able to achieve that alongside the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. From January 15, 2010, to March 31, 2019, nearly 57 million single-use bags, retail bags, have been kept from the NWT landfill, representing about a 72-percent reduction, and we are actually working with, and I apologize, I don't know exactly what the department is, or the committee is, but we're working with the federal government on this. Oh, sorry, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, sorry. We're working with them presently. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We've seen some local retailers stop using plastic bags on their own accord and have just gone to reusing cardboard boxes or just insisting that the only option for people is to bring their own bag. In terms of the single-use plastic bags, is that something that our government would like to jump on sooner rather than later, and work with retailers to end that practice? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For that type of detail, I'll ask the deputy minister to provide information on what we are doing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Deputy Minister, Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister mentioned, we are currently working with our provincial and federal partners through the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment on a single-use plastics roadmap, as part of a commitment under the Canada-wide Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste. Our intention is to do some amendments to the Waste Reduction and Recovery Act and also look at streams, and which streams are most available to us for waste reduction, in collaboration with some of those committees that I mentioned earlier. The work is ongoing. At this particular moment in time, we would need to do some amendments to the act to be able to enable that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, deputy minister. We'll move to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd just like to commend the department on all the work they've done on that waste management strategy. There is a lot of good work in there. One of the issues raised in there is that a lot of our waste management facilities have a water licence but are not in compliance with it, so my question is: do we know how many of them are not in compliance, and is there some sort of timeline to get them in compliance with their water licences?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We'll have to get back to the Member with that information. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I trust that the department understands the importance of that. You know, there is lots of work to do on waste management. I wanted to kind of pick up where the Member for Frame Lake left off. Presently, securities are set by or housed within ENR, Lands, and then there's a bit over in OROGO. I guess my question is: is there a reason that ENR and land securities are in separate departments? I recognize there is different legislation and those departments have responsibility for it, but is there any benefit to having them under different Ministers? Well, the same Minister, but different departments, in this case.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of ENR.
For that type of detail, I'm going to have to ask the deputy minister to provide that information.
Deputy Minister, Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The way that the securities are set up right now is due to the delegated authority from the federal government. Land-related liabilities have been delegated to the Minister of Lands due to the Lands Act, and water-related liabilities have been delegated to the Minister of ENR because the Waters Act sits under the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
I guess what I'm getting at, this is the same kind of issue with contaminated sites, is that they lie within ENR, Lands, and then a bit with EIA, as well. I guess what I'm looking for is, you know, this is largely a political discussion, but whether the Minister is willing to look into if there is any benefit to keeping all of our securities expertise spread out in different departments, along with contaminated sites. I recognize OROGO has to be separate, and I recognize EIA has to have theirs, and I know no one ever wants to talk about corporate restructuring, but I was hoping the Minister could look into whether there is any benefit to keeping both contaminated sites and securities separate in ENR and Lands. I recognize we would have to, then, change the delegated authority or move some people around the departments, but I'm asking if the Minister is willing to begin that conversation.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of ENR.
Thank you. Right now, getting down into the nitty-gritty or into the deep of this, we have regulations that the Minister of Lands gets to deal with, and then those that the Minister of ENR gets to deal with, so we have those regulations there. The departments work together closely to address this, more so now than before, but for further detail so that hopefully we can get people to understand, I'll ask the deputy minister to further answer the question. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Deputy minister, Ms. Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think it's important to recognize that there are things that the Waters Act is responsible for, other than securities, that make sense at ENR, and there are things that the Lands Act does, other than securities, that make sense at the Department of Lands, which is why those pieces of legislation are in those two departments. There definitely is a close working relationship on securities between the two departments.
Following back to the contaminated sites part of the question, ENR is the lead on some of the work on environmental site assessments and other pieces of that, but many departments work on contaminated sites. MACA, Infrastructure, all departments have an interest in contaminated sites. These files are things that the government is working to make sure that we are collaborating effectively on. We understand the importance of both contaminated sites and, of course, securities and why there are concerns related to that, so there are special groups that have been set up within the government to work on these at multiple levels, the director level and the assistant deputy minister level, as well as the deputy level. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, deputy minister. Are there any further questions for this section? If there are no further questions, please turn to page 73. Environment and Natural Resources, environmental protection and waste management, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $4,473,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. We will now turn to environmental stewardship and climate change, beginning on page 75, with information items on page 78. Questions? Are there any questions on environmental stewardship? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I would like to start on page 76, top item, climate change and air quality. Can I have an explanation as to why it's being reduced from last year? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ENR.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It was a sunset. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Sunset of what, our funding or federal funding? Can I get an explanation? Thanks, Madam Chair.
