Mr. Speaker, I have some further questions I'd like to pursue with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on this arsenic remediation guideline matter. It's not clear whether this new work went through any kind of an internal or external review or was discussed with interested comanagement bodies, such as the land and water boards or even the Giant Mine Oversight Board. So can the Minister tell us who was consulted during the development of these new arsenic remediation guidelines, and can he summarize what happened or make a commitment to make that information public? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for ECC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in developing the guidelines, input was provided by several academic arsenic researchers, a health risk expert with the Giant Mine Oversight Board, and the GNWT departments. GNWT staff will continue to discuss the guidelines with land and water boards as part of the current public engagement process. Public comments and concerns will be addressed in a What We Heard summary report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. These guidelines, whatever they look like and that get approved at the end of the day, I think they have some significant implications for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation that live on perhaps some contaminated lands or want to have some business opportunities there, the City of Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories Construction Association. So has the department actually done any kind of outreach to any of these governments? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Governments or NGOs. Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For that detail, I'll have to get back to the Member. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. If it's not the case that they've done that engagement, I really urge that this department do that work.
I guess my next question, Mr. Speaker, is once these are finalized, what sort of public communications is there going to be? Because this will have implications for people that buy and sell land, real estate agents, banks that do financing. This has got some pretty serious implications. So what is the department going to do to communicate these new guidelines to the public and interested parties? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, I think it was his first question, we will address the part of What We Heard report will be provided. We will also put it on our website. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, but posting this to a website I just don't think is going to cut it. I tried to read this stuff last night. It's highly technical stuff. And the document that's out there for public engagement right now is three pages. There's no references in it. It's not very well done in my humble opinion. It doesn't even explain that we're going from 2003 guidelines to a new set of guidelines. I think the Minister needs to beef up the public engagement/public communications component.
So can the Minister undertake to talk to his department about how they're going to improve communications of this now and moving forward once the guideline is finished? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker I thank the Member for his encouragement, his advice, and I will reach out and have conversations with the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, our time for oral questions has expired.
As it is the last day tomorrow, I know there may be a lot of questions, so we'll have to shorten up the preamble and the answers, to the point, just so everyone gets a chance. Thought I'd give you a head's up. Thanks.
Written questions. Colleagues, we will return after a short recess.
SHORT RECESS
Colleague, we will continue. Oral questions. Just kidding.
