Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I'll turn to the DM. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's the amount that is allotted for water regulatory, and we are able to work within that budget. If you can see from the actuals, we actually came in under the budget in 2019-2020, so we've had discussions with the regulatory group and this funding is adequate for the work that the need to do. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I think this is the line item where our water inspectors would go and do inspections, and I just want to know what's happening with the diamond mines right now, whether our inspectors are allowed to go to the site and whether they are able to perform their job. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. That's actually Lands that actually has the responsibility to go into the mines. Thank you.
Thank you. Member.
I don't think so.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We already have Lands officers who go into the mine and they do the water work at the same time. All of the diamond mines right now, the regulatory work by the water officers are done by Lands officers. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Okay. Am I allowed to ask: are those inspectors actually allowed to go to the site right now? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
That, we'd have to get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. Member.
Thanks. Yes. I know we're into year two of a pandemic, but it's an important time at some of these sites, as well, and the life cycle of some of these mines. The deputy minister knows this way better than I, that, in a couple of months, we're going to be talking about spring freshet. That's a very important time at these sites because water starts moving around and strange things can happen. I don't think our folks were able to go there in May and June of 2020, so I want to make sure that our folks get there this year and are able to do their work. I don't know what else I can say. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
We will get back to the committee with that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Nothing further. Thanks.
Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just curious to know why there was no 2019-2020 actual for the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and I apologize if that was answered. It's been a long day. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
To the DM. Thank you.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We've been doing an assessment of things that should be contracts versus contributions, and this is one of them that we have switched to doing as a contract. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That's good to hear. I like to hear that we're being more efficient, so kudos to the department for that. When the deputy minister commented that the NWT water strategy line item, the $175,000, could be used by a variety of projects and that includes research and community projects, given that there's potential for the university side to dip down as COVID restrictions still continue on, although I know that a lot of those people are probably really dedicated and are willing to maybe come up and spend two weeks in the bush isolating for themselves so they can do their research, I'm just curious to know: is this a potential or an area where we could be actually increasing the funding and then using this money to increase or meet our mandate of increasing employment in small communities since it is a broad fund from the sounds of it? It does sound like it could be a great way to start creating new projects in small communities at this time.
Perhaps maybe not an increase in funding as I see people's faces, but even just repurposing a little bit of this money so that, instead of it being very restrictive, it could be used to sort of, again, keep money flowing into smaller communities, keep people working. It does seem like it's a great area to be moving forward with the water guardians or the guardian program, all of that kind of thing. It's all step in line with that, and increasing our knowledge economy, as well. Just more of a suggestion or comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. I'll take that as a comment. Did the Minister have anything to follow-up?
I thank the Member for that, and we will have discussions. Nothing's a never-never, and here's maybe an opportunity to look at it. We will be having those discussions, but further detail, maybe get the deputy minister.
Thank you. These are community monitors and provides funding to guardians already. We have looked at those opportunities. The department has actually looked at some of the work where we would travel into communities. We've hired local residents to work with communities to do that work. Along the lines of what the Member has stated, we've been doing that work, and this line item, in particular, is how we get money out for community monitoring and the guardian programs that we support related to water. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. No further? Okay. Are there any further questions under the water management monitoring? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to this section, what percentage of these funds go to funding or providing funding to Indigenous groups to participate in development of strategies and action plans. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It would depend on the year because it depends on what projects that we're doing. We have an Aboriginal steering committee that supports the implementation of the water strategy and has since we started to develop it, so those costs are always covered for the participation of the Aboriginal steering committee. Some years, we have traditional knowledge projects that we're working on, or community work that we're doing. Other years, we have more research, but under the Water Strategy, there is consistent work with communities because many of the action items are to work directly with communities on water issues. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to research and monitoring, what is the extent of monitoring that we do, and is it concentrated in a specific geographical area in the Northwest Territories? I suspect it's up and down the valley and throughout. The water coming into the NWT, we're going to see more contamination there, so I'm just wondering where we're doing most of our monitoring and where most of those dollars are going. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. We do have various sites across there, and we're making sure, as the deputy minister said, if there's early warning systems we have in place and we're able to see if there's contaminants coming down. For detail on where the sites are, I'll go, with your permission, to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There's different types of water monitoring that we do across the territory. There's hydrometric monitoring, which is water quantity monitoring. In the Beau-Del region, there's 27 sites; in the Sahtu, 22; in the Dehcho, 17, in the North Slave, 28; and in the South Slave, there's 10. They're distributed across the territory.
Another example is the community-based water quality monitoring that we do. There're five different monitoring -- it's with communities. There're five communities in the Beau-Del region. There're 11 sites that are monitored with the communities in the Sahtu; nine in the Dehcho; seven in the North Slave; and six in the South Slave. There's also meteorological monitoring that's mostly focused in the Beau-Del and the North Slave, and there's snow surveys that are done across the whole territory, as well. There're the trans-boundary water quality sites: one in the Beau-Del on the Peel; the Dehcho on the Liard; and two, one on the Hay and one on the Slave, in the South Slave. Then we have a water quality network with 22 stations in the North Slave and 10 in the South Slave. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to water monitoring, in the land claim agreements, there're specific sections, I think, for that. When we're looking at this, how do we incorporate what's in the agreements with respect to what we're doing in managing and participation from Indigenous groups? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail, I'll have to turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
