Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. I will probably have some more questions on this habitat protection, maybe later this week. However, I did want to ask about the status of transboundary work with the Government of Nunavut. The Minister did invite me to a meeting not that long ago. I guess it was about a year ago. The Nunavut Premier was there. He is interested. There were some music groups there. Where are we at with a transboundary caribou agreement? I know the Premier of Nunavut has been diverted with some other stuff, even in his hometown, but where are we at with a transboundary caribou agreement for the Bathurst herd and maybe some of the other herds? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. I will start and then turn it to the deputy minister. We have been trying to follow up on the meeting we had from last year, that the Member was invited to, a couple of Members from the House were invited to, which was really good. We had Indigenous governments. We had the Nunavut government. The Premier is the Minister of environment from Nunavut; not only is he the Premier, but he has taken that portfolio. Unfortunately, the situation has not arrived that we were able to have further conversations. As the Member talked about, he has been pretty busy in dealing with some of the challenges that are there. We are still trying to work with him. We have reached out a number of times, and we are trying to fit it into our schedule to have those conversations. However, the work for the staff, I will turn to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't think that, per se, we were looking at a transboundary agreement in the sense of an agreement. We have range plans and management plans that we have collaboratively developed with Nunavut. They are a partner that we work with regularly on the implementation of those plans, like with some of the other provincial governments, as well, when the herds go across boundaries. We recognize and work very closely at the department level with the department of environment in Nunavut, and certainly, they have been involved in these multi-year processes with Indigenous governments to develop range plans and management plans for the herds. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My colleague from Frame Lake covered a lot of the questions I was going to ask, but that is fine. There are a few questions I want to ask anyways. I am just looking at some sunsets here, the alternative harvest and the monitoring and range planning. Can the Minister explain a little bit about that, why these two line items are being sunsetted? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I have to go to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The alternative harvest funding was a one-time pilot funding project to assist harvesters in exploring alternative food sources other than caribou. Although there was no budget allocated ongoing, we have this year provided funding because of the mobile zone being as large as it is and the difficulty accessing caribou, so several Indigenous governments have received alternative harvest funding this year. Could I ask for clarity on what the other item was that the Member was asking about, please?
Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Monitoring and range planning.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This was also one-time funding, and it was to support Indigenous governments' and organizations' involvement in Boreal caribou management and range planning, so that work was scheduled to be completed in that year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Madam Chair, I am just concerned. We were just mentioning that caribou management, it's just important work, and I just do not want to see anything being taken away from that. I think that we need to make sure that we protect all our wildlife. I don't know. It just seems like this one-time contribution, I think this should be something that should be continuing on. That is how I feel about it. I am sure a few of my colleagues do, as well. I am going to move along here. That was just a comment. The wildlife management board, I saw it someplace else here. Maybe I am going off a little bit here. Can the Minister just explain what this is, this line item here for $118,000?
Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I will ask the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This line item is for contributions to support the wildlife management boards across the NWT. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you. The other item here, too, there is a decrease, as well, not so much a sunset, for the stewardship program. Can the Minister explain why there is a decrease there, as well?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. That there is due to internal alignment due to historical actuals. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry. I did not catch it. I heard a sneeze. Was that "historical actions"?
Minister.
Historical actuals.
I am just wondering about historical actual. Okay. Good. Can the Minister just elaborate what is meant by that? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Historical actuals are actually what it has cost us to do this program area, so we go to the actual here. We realize this is where the numbers are for us to be able to do it, so this is our actual cost to run the program. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, Minister. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, fair enough. I just was not too sure there. I don't have any other questions except to say, yes, to just continue to do the best we can with what we have got to support our caribou. Since time immemorial, our people lived off caribou, and I just hope that we can see future generations continue to harvest and hunt this animal. I am hoping that we keep these herds strong. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes. Thank you. I totally agree with the Member. As the Member is aware, we met with the YK Dene, the elders and chief, their committee there, to talk about it. We are also going in, I believe it's the 26th. The 24th is Fort Smith. The 26th, we are going into Lutselk'e to meet with chief and council and the elders, too, to talk about the caribou situation, as well, so we are looking and listening to our communities and affected governments and IGCs or IGOs, depending on who you talk to. Yes, so we are listening, and we are trying to make sure we give caribou a better place. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Are there any other questions under wildlife and fish? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. It's called wildlife and fish, and I haven't heard anything about fish yet. Being from Hay River, I can't go back there if I don't ask questions. I would like to know what percentage of this budget item here goes to the area of fish management, I guess is what I'm asking.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister for that detail. Thank you.
Deputy Minister Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This used to be the Wildlife Division, and it was changed to the Wildlife and Fish Division because we have begun discussions with the federal government to look at taking on some responsibilities related to fish. What I will say here is that there are limited amounts in this particular budget other than for some of the enforcement aspects that happen at the regional level, that we have an agreement with the federal government already on, but fish are covered off under the Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program. There is much work that is done on fish because it's one of the valued ecosystem components: water, fish, and caribou.
Also, there is fish work that has been done related to the Human Health Risk Assessment for Giant, and there is fish work that has been done as part of the Water Stewardship Strategy implementation because you don't generally talk to people about water and not talk about fish. We've done some fish research projects, but for wildlife and fish specifically, the funding is related directly to that enforcement role that I mentioned. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If we are in discussions with the federal government, is there a timeline where we would take more responsibility? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I'll ask the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's early stages of that work. I think that this decision was before my time working with this section, but I believe what we were doing was setting ourselves up to be like other jurisdictions. Most jurisdictions have a wildlife and fish section, or fish and wildlife, as many of you have heard. The intent here is to be ready for those discussions, but they are at an early stage. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not sure what else to ask, then, if we don't really have a hell of a lot of responsibility. That will be it. Thank you.
