Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just looking at the industry there, it seems like we have not made a lot of headway. Maybe I am wrong, but I think over the number of years we have been kind of looking at forestry-type businesses that we really have not done a lot. I understand it's community driven, so I am not sure if we can do more or not. Anyways, I just want to go to page 84. Under contract services at $17,779,000, what does that entail, and where does that go? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Sorry. For that detail, I will ask the deputy minister to answer that question.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Those would be things like aviation and air tanker contracts; firefighters, the negotiated contracts, pre-suppression contracts; and aircraft maintenance contracts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member? Are there any other questions under forest management? Seeing none, I will get Members to go to page 84. Environment and Natural Resources, forest management, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $38,498,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, now we will go to water management and monitoring, beginning on page 87, with information on page 90. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regard to the water strategy action plan, with the up-river sites for checking them for contaminates and what's coming, flowing down the river, how many of those sites do we have open now, and are still half of them shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
For that detail, I will turn to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There were more stations where the monitoring was occurring. Then I believe it was in January or February, there were travel restrictions that were put in place. The Environment Canada staff who do the sampling at those sites near the oil sands are in Saskatchewan, so they were unable to travel to do the sampling. In discussions with the Alberta government, they are continuing to do their long-term monitoring, and they agreed to do key stations; 27th baseline Athabasca is one of them. It's the long-term monitoring station, and they are doing that one, as well. We can make sure that we are maintaining a monitoring record. Then, as soon as the travel restrictions due to COVID have stopped, they will be coming back to do more sites than what they are doing right now. There are some sites that are closer to the NWT that are in Alberta that are being done out of Yellowknife by Environment Canada, so there are four of them. One of them is in the NWT; the others that are being done, as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In regard to the water partnership agreements that we have with research departments in Alberta, all information is shared, correct, in regard to what's in the water? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, all reports are shared with us. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
No. Just for myself, it's a big thing because everything flows down the Mackenzie and ends up right in Tuktoyaktuk, so I just want to make sure that any of the sites and our bilateral agreements are making sure that all information is shared and passed along to the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation in regard to information that is coming. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail of who we share with our Indigenous governments, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy Minister Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The results that we do get, part of the transboundary agreement is setting up what we call an early warning system in the transboundary agreement, which is sampling and the monitoring data for quality and quantity that's in Alberta upstream. What we do is: we have an annual report that we do with Alberta that is published, and that is on the monitoring that happens right at the border. If there are any changes that we see, we look at that early warning system data to see why that change is happening, and we make sure that we explain that in the annual reports. Right now, we are a little bit behind on that reporting because we needed to work together on how we were actually going to develop the reports, but I'm happy to say that we're working right now on two years together in one report so that we'll be up to date on that reporting. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
No. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have you on the clock. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going to go on the same line as my colleague here in terms of transboundary water items. I know that we have an agreement with Alberta and BC, but if I heard correctly, I don't think we have anything solid in place with Saskatchewan. Can the Minister give us an update if there has been any work done in this area? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We provided a draft agreement for review to Saskatchewan a couple of years ago, and we just recently had a meeting with them. They had some capacity challenges, and to be honest, on their priority list, it's not the same as our priority list because it's a very small portion of Saskatchewan. They have reviewed it now, and they are at the table with us. We are hopeful that we'll be able to come to an agreement with Saskatchewan in the near future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Madam Chair.
Oh, my apologies, Madam Chair.
That's okay. I'm just waking everybody up. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know I've said this before. The water systems, they don't see borders. With all our water systems, everything is all connected, and I bet you, if we had any major environmental concerns here on our side and something was flowing into another jurisdiction, they would be all over us. I think there needs to be that mutual respect. I think that's really important. I just thought I'd make that as a comment. I'm going to move on to the NWT water strategy. Can the Minister just explain exactly the contributions, how this works, and what exactly this line item is? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
My understanding is: it's funding for the University of Guelph to initiate groundwater monitoring in the Fort Liard area, but it has been delayed due to COVID. It's for projects like that, but for other details, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This can be for contributions with communities to work on community projects, or it can be to work on research projects, as the Minister has put forward. It's any sort of contribution agreements that we have or work that we do to implement the Water Stewardship Strategy Action Plan, so there are many, many things that fall under that category. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's good to know. This other last item here, this other contribution for the Mackenzie River Basin Board. Can the Minister explain what that is, as well?
Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is an agreement that was signed in 1997 among all of the jurisdictions that are part of the Mackenzie River Basin and Canada, and that agreement, the way that it's implemented is through meetings of the Mackenzie River Basin Board. The NWT is a member, and we have an Indigenous member who participates on the Mackenzie River Basin Board, as do the other jurisdictions that are in the Mackenzie River Basin. This is a contribution towards this that we make every year so that the board can continue. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
No. That's good to know. I wasn't too sure I understood that because, in the actuals, it didn't exist. Now, that's earmarked for that, so at least I know what that's for. At this time, I don't have any other questions, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. The number for water regulatory and assessment on page 88 is just kind of like in a flat line. I'm just wondering why it hasn't gone up or down. Thanks, Madam Chair.
