It's for the North Slave, and it's the water resource officers. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Yeah, North Slave consists of Yellowknife and Lutselk'e consists Fort Resolution, Dettah, N'dilo, and Tlicho regions. So what I would like to see is something specifically for Tlicho because we're not part of Yellowknife, and I keep saying that. So I just wanted to know if in the future, you know I know people do change all the time, so I would like to see more position transferred to Tlicho region. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. So right now we are not looking at relocating those positions specifically to the Tlicho. It's the North Slave, and that's where those positions are based right now in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Well, I mean, you know, it's it's doable; we can do something about that. So, yeah, that's I was really concerned about that because contaminated sites, people are still talking about. Still talking about the effects of the Rayrock that's in our backyard. Now there's other there the Fortune Minerals too as well, so. And with the diamond mine expected to close, so this funding, it would be nice if there were more positions in the small communities who are impacted by the who are affected more by the contaminated sites. So that's what I would like to see is that more be invested in the small communities to monitor these contaminated sites by bringing in more jobs to the small communities. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, I think we need to I'll ask the deputy minister to explain what these positions are. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Kelly.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the regional positions that you're seeing here are water resource officers. They're not people that are working specifically on contaminated sites. So their role is to go around and do inspections at industrial sites, and they're housed in Yellowknife. Two of them are housed in Yellowknife right now, and they're in the middle of where the sites are to go and do this work.
The other there's a couple other regional positions in here that are environmental protection officers. None of them are directly related to contaminated sites although they do contribute to contaminated sites work. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
I would think they are related to, you know, to those specifics. But it would be nice to have more of those positions transferred to the regions. Even like with here, there's five assistant deputy ministers on page 70, and there's a superintendent for North Slave. Is that position in Yellowknife, or is it where is this job located at? And there's you know, a lot of these positions here as identified, there's five assistant deputy minister. A lot of these in the small communities where they settled land claims, these positions will be beneficial to help our land claim groups. That's why I'm asking that, you know, it what this department should do is that so they keep talking about having a good working relationship with Indigenous government. They should transfer some of these jobs where the Indigenous government or those with the settled land claims can really benefit from these positions. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
I'll start, and then I'll turn to the deputy minister. So 60 percent of our jobs are in the regional and 40 percent are in headquarters. So I'm very happy with our numbers. We got 60 percent. I need to stress to the Member 60 percent is there. But for further detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So we certainly look at positions at putting positions into regions. There's a renewable resource officer in Whatì that's looking after the Tlicho AllSeason Road. We have a position for an officer that's in Behchoko for Dinaga We'ehodi as well. And I think that I expressed earlier there's an ADM position that we're the new ADM position that will be a regional position and will be wherever there is someone who has those skills in the region. We're certainly looking at opportunities to ensure that there's opportunities in regions for these positions. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, and there's nine positions in Behchoko. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to clarify the protocol for notification of spills. What is the process for notification, and who is the first person that the Minister should be contacting when it comes to a spill?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. Could the Member is it territorial or is it Alberta with the transboundary? Who is our contact; what's the question? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. When the spill happened, it was kind of a surprise to everybody. Everybody was kind of running around and watching the media thing out there and doing all these other things. I'm just wondering what the protocol is with regards to who is the fist person that the Minister called in the territories with regards to this spill?
Minister.
Yes. I guess the first person I called once I found out was I reached out to the Premier. I reached out to her. And then the rest of Cabinet. And then we put something together, and we reached out to the MLAs as well as our Indigenous governments and the community impacted down in the south part. But for the whole process, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So in this particular spill, the community was already aware of it. So we knew that the Town of Fort Smith had been alerted by an Indigenous government who sent an email to them, and we were aware that they had been were already aware. Usually at the time where the Minister would find out if this was a BMC announcement where we were or notification, pardon me, where we were told. At the time that we were speaking with the Minister, we would also be in communication with the communities and the Indigenous governments through the Indigenous steering committee to make sure that they were aware and that we were starting to plan the additional monitoring while the Minister's office went about the letting the Premier and others know. In this particular case, the community was already aware of the spill and it was the regional superintendent of the South Slave who alerted Headquarters ENR because he became aware of it, which is not how the process is supposed to work. Alberta's supposed to let us know and notify us through the bilateral management committee. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
So, Madam Chair, you know, I'm of the belief that water is life. I being in leadership for 14 years as the chief for the Salt River First Nation and also having been involved with the Dene Nation and the Akaitcho territory, water is very significant to life. And I'm just wondering who did you contact at the Town of Fort Smith? Who is the person that was contacted at the Town of Fort Smith. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, for that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the email had gone to the mayor of Fort Smith. We were sent that by the regional superintendent. Because we have done monitoring with the community before and the Indigenous governments, we contacted the folks that work at the water treatment plant because that's where we put sampling equipment in the wintertime. So it was very similar to when Obed spill happened, and we worked with the community to put additional monitoring equipment in. We knew who to contact from that previous work. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
So, Madam Chair, so it was done by email and that's the way the email went out to the Indigenous governments also, or? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The communication with the Indigenous governments and the community was done by telephone. One of our water researchers who worked on the Obed work and knew the contacts communicated with them so that we could as quickly as possible get monitoring equipment installed. We also have a water quality monitoring expert that works at ENR in Fort Smith who was instantly engaged to go and meet and start talking to people about how we could get the monitoring equipment in. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
I guess I have a concern about the way the protocol went because I've never been you know, I I'm not a computer person, and I knew that it had happened through hearsay but I was never approached by the Minister to tell me this actually happened. And I've never been he's never come down the hall to even explain to me exactly what happened even though I knew what happened. And I'm also concerned that I contacted one of the Indigenous governments, and they have not had no contact with with this whole water spill. And, you know, I'm of the you know, when we I think that it's extremely important that the protocol is followed. You know, I have a lot of respect for this department. Always did. Always supported it. And we used to take part in the monitoring program ourselves at the Salt River First Nation with people from both the federal and the territorial level people that come in to do the monitoring. And it amazes me that, you know, there's no contact with myself. Not once has anybody come to my office and said this is what's happening now, or anything. I mean, I expect that same respect that I give the Minister. And how hard is it? He's passing by my office every single morning. And, you know, I just want to make sure that the right protocol is followed. I love my community. I sit here and talk about all these different aspects of the community all the time, especially when it affects Indigenous livelihood and especially when it is part of the food security that we are all talking about now because of inflation, because of all the different things that I believe in. And I'm quite I'm quite disturbed that the Minister could sit there and say that, and he has not come to my office once in this last week. So there you go. So how much contact is really happening with the actual mayor, the acting chief of the Salt River, and the president of the Fort Smith local Metis Nation. That's what I'd like to know. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
So first and foremost, I'll take responsibility that I didn't reach out to the MLA. We sent an email. I was dealing with the Alberta government and that there. So I'll take ownership I haven't gone to her. But we did send an email. We sent it to all the Indigenous governments and the municipalities. I'll take the ownership, I haven't gone to her office. I will make sure it happens in the future. But for the other detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the way that ENR found out was we were sent an email where the Town of Fort Smith and Indigenous governments were alerted to this. We did, as the Minister mentioned, send another email that provided more information to the Indigenous governments. We have local staff who have been working with the Indigenous governments and the town to do the additional monitoring. And most certainly if we didn't if we knew that the Indigenous government and the town were not aware, we would most certainly have gone and have spoken to them in greater detail but we knew that they were already aware of the spill. And the first priority was to get the monitoring equipment in as soon as possible, working with the community and the Indigenous governments to make sure that we were collecting samples as soon as possible. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Anything further, Member for Thebacha?
I don't have any other questions.
Thank you. Are there any other Members wishing to speak to environmental management monitoring and climate change?
Seeing none, please turn to page 83. Environment and Climate Change, environmental management monitoring and climate change, operations expenditure summary, 20232024 Main Estimates, $20,388,000. Does committee agree?
