Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in the transboundary waters, there looks like there's a significant -- like, almost half of a decrease. Can the Minister explain why the -- from 480 to 285, what is the decrease? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, again, the decrease is the result of a one-time supp for a carryover from 2023-2024. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
No further questions, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm looking at page 89, the Mackenzie River Basin Board. I see there's continued allowance there of $40,000 for this activity. Could the Minister explain the roles and responsibilities or activities for this basin board. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll pass to deputy minister Kelly for that one. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Mackenzie River Basin Board is under a master agreement that includes Canada, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan within the Mackenzie River basin. And this is the board that manages activities for that agreement. There's a traditional knowledge group as well as some technical groups that inform the board members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks, Dr. Kelly, for that explanation.
My next question is there any plans for this group or this organization to expose themselves or give the public exposure and have meetings, say, in the Sahtu that we're the greatest region in the whole 650-kilometer watershed impacted by the low waters of Mackenzie. So is there any planned meetings for this board in the Sahtu? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, no there are no current meetings planned. They do have a website, and they meet under the water strategy, and this is what brings the input to the board. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
I've got nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
No further questions. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister please explain the increase in the line item in 2024-2025 from the main to revised estimates and now here in the main estimates in 2024-2025 for the line item of environmental protection and waste management, what caused us to go so far over and is there continuing cost pressures? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the variance of the $542,000 between 2023 Actuals and the 2023 Main Estimates is due to an increase related to expenses related to contaminated sites that were not covered by the environmental liabilities fund. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I guess my assumption, then, is that's been contemplated for these main estimates? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes.
I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Okay, I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The question I have is looking at the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and the Minister or the -- one of his witnesses did mention that this is the place where they work with the regions and the territories and the provinces. They also have traditional knowledge people that they work with with the board. And my colleague asked about whether or not they were doing any kind of work with the people. Given that we had such a low water level this year, is there any work that's going to be done with the elders, bringing the elders and scientists together to talk about what is going on with the climate with the low water levels in the Mackenzie River? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the department provides regular information to the community members as well as the Indigenous and other governments across the Northwest Territories on water levels in the Mackenzie basin as well the tributaries. The annual water stewardship strategy workshop is the actual mechanism that brings those folks together to have those discussions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have no further questions. Thank you.
Next on my list I've got the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I note that the Northwest Territories environmental audit falls into this area. My first question is, is this the area where I would be asking questions about implementation of recommendations of the audit?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you for that clarification. So I'm just going to note -- we don't need to turn to it, but in page 48 of the business plan, it's noted that the department will be facilitating and implementing recommendations from the 2025 audit. Can the department fill me in on how many recommendations directed at the department have been fulfilled from the 2020 environmental audit?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there were 32 recommendations that resulted from the 2020 audit, two of which are complete. 21, which are in progress but have fulfilled the purpose of the audit, but some of those are ongoing despite the fact that they've met the request out of the audit itself. And nine additional items are in progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Over to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now, Mr. Chair, in the Minister or department's opinion, looking forward to the 2025 audit and of course completion of the 2020 one -- the 2020 audit is what I mean, not 2021 -- does the department feel that they are adequately resourced to respond to those recommendations in a timely manner?
Thank you. I'll look to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, thank you for the question. We do feel that we are adequately resourced. Some of the processes from the audit are just long in required time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So if Members were hoping to see kind of a more accelerated response to audit recommendations noting that it relates to one of the key mandate commitments of the government and how closely this relates to kind of regulatory effectiveness and the audit recommendations kind of pointing to creating better effectiveness within our regulatory system, again I'd just ask the question, does the department feel they're adequately resourced to respond to the 2025 audit in expedient fashion? Thanks.
Thank you. I'll look to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we feel that we are adequately resourced in this area. There are certain segments of the audit that require contributions from others that are not necessarily in -- the timelines aren't within our control. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I appreciate those answers from the department. Always appreciate hearing that a Minister feels that they have got the resources they need. You know, I think it's obvious that this is one that is important to me and I do want to see the department prioritizing, and I think it's an important part of getting effectiveness out of that mandate commitment. So, yeah, I just want the Minister to keep the House up to date if they're being resourced adequately to move on those recommendations quickly.
I'm just going to move over to the CIMP program, Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program. Does this program specifically -- how do I word this? Is the program directly related to reducing climate change impacts in the Northwest Territories? Sorry, a better way to put it, is the department directly related to reducing carbon output of the Northwest Territories with this...
Thank you. I'm going to the Minister.
