I will now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, the Department of Environment and Climate Change. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Does the committee agree? Thank you, committee. We will take a short recess and resume with the first item.
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Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates. We will now consider the Department of Environment and Climate Change. Does the Minister of Environment and Climate Change wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, please, Madam Chair.
Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.
Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my left, I have deputy minister Robert Jenkins. And on my right, I have Jessica St. Arnaud, the director of finance. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The committee has agreed to forego general comments on the Department of Environment and Climate Change. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity summary beginning with corporate management starting on page 83 with information items on page 86. Are there any questions? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I'm just going to quickly flip through the activities to make sure this is a good question; I believe it is. I know that the department has done restructuring in recent years. Can the Minister speak a little bit to the role of ADM regional operations now that that key activity has been sort of subsumed into the other activities? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will pass that to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the ADM regional operations primarily deals with the enforcement functions across the department. So there's -- we have regional offices in every region. We have enforcement functions under land, under water, under wildlife, and so the various aspects for that fall to ADM regional operations. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, could I get a little bit more substantiation around why that as a function was removed however, like why that was made as an organizational choice? Thank you.
Deputy minister Jenkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, I think we've got quite a bit. Previous there was ADM role also held aspects of fire, forest management, wildlife in terms of the science and other aspects, quite a large portfolio. By having a new ADM regional operations, you've got some separation there as well for sensitive matters such as enforcement which really is an area that upon which itself in terms of being dealt with under those enforcement functions in our -- the legal aspects of this, so some separation there is positive in that space. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thanks. Yeah, I'm going to have questions about the reorg throughout, but I will save them for the other applicable sections.
Can the department provide additional details on the transfer of the surface rights boards. What were the main drivers of this change? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll pass that to the director of finance.
Director St. Arnaud.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's just an administrative process change. So the director used administer the contribution agreement, and now finance will. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. What benefit is the reasoning behind that change? I assume managing by finance is a more administratively streamline, but I'd love for a further explanation. Thank you.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that is correct, it's just administratively more streamlined. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you. And just one last question on this. The budget reallocation of approximately $34,000, what does that fund cover? Thank you.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that covers the UNW increase. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Now go to Member for Great Slave.
I'm done. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Okay. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just want to continue on my now annual plug for the old Northwest Territories environmental audit. I note in the business plans that there's going to be a 2025 audit. I think the update, it says that they've commenced work on it. And I note that the target in the business plan -- and if they're looking for a page number, it's page 79 of the document, page 35. I'm not sure which of those pages is actually the relevant page. There's two page numbers on the document. So -- but anyways, the point being that the business plan target is that 2025 audit recommendations are addressed.
Just noting that the department did not manage to implement all of the recommendations from the previous audit as of the initiation of the 2025 audit, I'd just like to ask if the department is interested in establishing a target date for when those 2025 audit recommendations are going to be addressed. And, again, I'm going to ask if the department is adequately resourced. It's going to be a bit harder to answer this question because I don't know if we have the audit yet, but if the department is adequately resourced to carry out the recommendations of the audit in a timely manner. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the Member for the question. At this time, it would be difficult to get a -- give a firm commitment on all of the items. Some of them are ongoing in nature, but we are certainly happy to come back to the Member individually and provide an update on each item and the recommendations. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going to gently push back a little bit. I mean, I do note that -- you know, I'm going to go -- every single department is going to get the targets and measurable outcome speech, and I don't want to spare ECC from this speech.
Without measurable outcomes and without targets, it's hard for us to know when we're achieving something. So it's also hard to know how much of a priority it is for the department. So I want to state for myself implementation of the audit recommendations are important, and I think they are critical to the mandate commitment that this government has made to streamline regulatory. So I think we've been struggling to articulate what exactly we even mean by streamlining, and I think that the audit gives us a great place to start. The recommendations that come from that audit are recommendations that come from talking to various people involved in the system and an expert analysis of things that may need to change in the system, and that's where we can get that information. So if we don't make implementation of the audit a priority, I don't think that we can achieve the priority that we've set. So I would like to see the department come back in a reasonable amount of time -- it's going to take some assessment of the audit and the recommendations in it, but come back to the House and let us know, you know, when they intend to -- or give us a timeline for each audit recommendation as to when the department thinks they can reasonably implement the recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to the Member for the points here. I will certainly come back and respond to each of the recommendations when the 2025 audit is released, if the Member would like to ask for them again then. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I can certainly make that commitment, and we'll continue to keep the pressure on the department as I think -- yeah, I -- I've made my point. But if we're talking about streamlining; we're talking about, you know, a high functioning regulatory system that we can be proud of, the audit is the key and so I'll keep the pressure on on that matter. I think that's all I wanted to say about the business plans. I do want to keep a focus on that for now. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister for Environment and Climate Change, do you want to respond to that?
I'll take that as a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
