Shane Thompson

I don't know if I heard the last part of the question, but I am thinking. ENR conducts regular ground and aerial monitoring of the mobile zone, and we do have the two checkpoints there. They are manned 24/7 during the season. I know, from talking to some of the hunters, that the monitors and the staff actually stop people and talk to them and communicate, and some of the times, if they have heard or seen some challenges, they investigate that further.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Caribou are central to our communities as a food source and as part of our local culture and way of life.

As you know, Mr. Speaker, our caribou herds are struggling. In particular, the Bathurst and the Bluenose-East herds have suffered serious declines in recent years.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to supporting our caribou through periods of decline. Today I am here to highlight some of the actions that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is leading in our government's efforts to manage human impacts on the Bathurst caribou herd...

I want to do it right. I have given them clear directions. I have asked them to come up with a model that works for the North. Is it a model of public interest groups and individuals across the territories to do it? Is it a combination of utilizing government and non-government people? I have given them three or four options to look at so that they can come to us with a better option to run that corporation.

Right now, I am going to stick to what I have asked them to do, and I am willing to work with committee once we get this information. I have to work with my colleagues, and then I have to...

No. We are working with the community through the nature fund and some of that stuff there, so the community is actually coming up with the funding. We have monitors right now on the ground. We work with paying for those, again, so unfortunately I can't say we are going to pay for those four, but we do have staff and we do have one staff in the community, an RR-02 position, so right now we do fund those things.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Barren-ground caribou are a shared resource and a shared responsibility, and it is important that we all work together to help their recovery. The band is a member of the Bathurst Caribou Advisory Committee, which works on their management plan for the herd. The band also participates in the Bathurst Caribou Range Plan Working Group, which will guide management of the herd moving on, and ENR continues to support the band and other Indigenous governments and organizations with their monitoring. This is in addition to ENR's regular monitoring of the Bathurst caribou herd...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 7-19(1), Bison Management Plan." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Alberta-NWT bilateral water management agreement was signed in March 2015. This agreement makes a clear commitment that Alberta will maintain the health of the aquatic ecological system of our shared waters, which include water quality, quantity and biology of the Slave River. Upstream monitoring by Alberta and the federal government provides the GNWT with an early warning of changes and an opportunity to mitigate effects before they are realized at the border. The GNWT monitors water quality and the biological indicators at the Alberta territorial border and has developed a system of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The environmental assessment for Teck Frontier began in January 2012. The government did not make a submission to the Environmental Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. At the time of the environmental assessment, the GNWT was actively negotiating with the Government of Alberta towards a bilateral water management agreement. The Alberta-NWT bilateral water management agreement addresses concerns related to upstream development and was signed in March 2015. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The government works closely with the Government of Nunavut and our co-management partners in the management of the Bathurst herd. The two governments signed an MOU to work together on caribou research, monitoring, and management of shared barren-ground caribou herds in 2017, and we presently are working to update that MOU. ENR has committed to provide the committee with a briefing on caribou management, which will include an update on our relationship with Nunavut on caribou.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ENR is committed to work with our partners to implement the Bathurst Caribou Range Plan. The range plan serves to guide the GNWT and others carrying out activities in wildlife and land management. GNWT has committed considerable resources to the management of the Bathurst herd, including the range plan activities. Last year, ENR received an additional $6.8 million over five years to support actions for the barren land caribou herd, and additional funds required beyond current resources will be assessed as the range plan is implemented.