Shane Thompson

So we are looking at this very topic right now. What we are seeing presently with the variants out there is that we may be doing the same approach moving forward but we need to look at that and confirm it. But for details, I'll turn to the deputy minister, if she has anything else to add. Thank you.

Okay, I agree we need to work on this. That's why we went out and did asked the Indigenous governments and the users of the program what they needed, what they think we need to do, and how do we improve. We have been working as the deputy minister has said, we've heard some things and we've started working on those things as the funding we are waiting for the information on February 10th. This is from Indigenous users, our hunters, our Indigenous governments. It's not the Government of the Northwest Territories coming up with this solution. It is the people of the Northwest Territories and...

Thank you. We'll get the dust suppressant information to her. In regards to that detail, I want to say yes, but I'm going to turn to the deputy minister to get clarity on what the process is moving forward. Thank you.

Yes, I do, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is not supportive of the plan to release treated tailing water from the oil sands to Athabasca River until we have all the information, data, and science to assess whether this can be done safely.

In this House, I've stated this publicly and make this clear to Alberta and the federal government. We will keep our Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations, committee, and other water partners, informed of our work on this matter which we know is a great importance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be clear, there's no releases of oil sand process. Water is currently allowed under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act or the Federal Fisheries Act. The Alberta government has said its regulations will not be in place until at least 2023, and the federal government regulations will not be in place until at least 2025.

At ENR, we have employed sciences and experts as part of the GNWT water management and monitoring team who are reviewing the proposals to authorize each release, including those with regulatory expertise. We are also...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding of the 2014 report that the Member's talking about was jointly done with NWTAC. We're more than willing to work with them to go on there.

As for the inadequacies that the Member talks about, it's a budget process. We need to compete with other priorities for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Member from Yellowknife North talked about $20 million for housing. Bam, let's give me $20 million for housing. Well, how do we take that compared to other issues? Housing is a priority. We've heard it in this House. But we have other...

Thank you. So the Member should be aware that my EAC is sending out emails that I get, and I send it to the Member right away. Whether we get them from the community, who are asking questions and that, when I send this stuff out there, the latest one was an issue about freeze up. We get that sent to the Member right away so she is aware of what's going on.

As for the formula, yes, it encompasses everything. Again, when we talk about the municipal funding formula, it was developed with NWTAC for the betterment of the territories, the 33 communities. So it's a formula that's used, and it counts...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and it's going to be a long answer on this one because I want to make sure we get the information out there.

In recent years, we have seen a decline in many caribou herds across the NWT and northern Canada. As you noted, the Bathurst herd declined from an estimated 47,000 in 1986 to 6,240 in 2021. At the time, we also saw a major decline in the BluenoseEast herd, declining from 120,000 in 2010 to 19,300 in 2018. The Beverly herd declined located to the east of the Bathurst herd was established at 103 in 2018. That's 103,000. And has been undergoing a slow decline in...

Thank you, and I apologize to the Member for the longwinded answer but it's very important we get this information out there.

So it's not what the herd is, it's the mobile zone. So the mobile zone is the area where the caribou are. Last year we had the overlap of the Beverly and the Bathurst and the Bluenose. And again, it's where we have our collared animals and that's where we know where our herds are. It's important to note that it's illegal to harvest any caribou in that mobile zone and regardless of the herd. And I think every Tuesday it's updated. So we make sure that information, so...