Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ENR has regular meetings with the Alberta government and their staff on the development of regulations. To date, there hasn't been any significant new information to share.

Alberta has made it clear that no decisions to develop a regulation has been made and that they will wait to fill knowledge gaps before deciding to proceed.

Regarding what ENR is doing, we are seeking expert technical support to support our review of the information we receive from Alberta. These Requests for Proposals have been and are expected to be posted shortly with the goal of...

Thank you, and I thank the Member for that question.

So the first part is in regards to the standardized list. Last year, we developed a standardized list. We provided that to the people that were impacted. Then we put a value to it. This year, we have that standardized list but because of inflation, we want to make sure that it's more current information. We should have that information available early next week and pathfinders into the insurance companies, the MLAs, and to the assessors as well. So we'll have that information available.

In regards to contractors, should an individual wish to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, advance payments can be issued based on the detailed damage assessments. So in other words, we ask the impacted residents to reach out to our pathfinders, register, then we get our assessors in there, and then we're able to do that. Then we work with the community members to make sure that they understand what we're doing, then if they need to go do an advance it takes seven to ten days to get it done. So we work with them on that there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have all heard about the war in Ukraine and witnessed its impact on the news. In this House, we saw numerous Members donate to the Canadian Red Cross and the GNWT made a commitment to match the donations by NWT residents up to a maximum of $50,000.00.

Well, closer to home, our pharmacist and his wife were impacted deeply. Ukraine was their home country. In 2011, he immigrated to Canadian to start a new life. As the war broke out, they watched in horror. They had family and close friends living there So he started with a petition asking the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when you look at the situation, so accommodations, we've done an RFP for B&Bs, hotels, motels, and we also are in the process, if it's not already been done, for camps. So that there is for the residents that are impacted. We are working with them. There's a number of residents that are staying with friends, family. They've got their 5th wheel I guess you'd call it. They're already working on there.

So in regards to accommodations, should they, right now if they're elderly that have disabilities or young families that are impacted by homes, we have a vetting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the quick answer is no. We're hoping the contractors that people look at are reputable. But the contractors that we have in place, the assessors, and the abatement crews, they're reputable with these are companies that we know that are working there. We encourage the residents that are being impacted if they are going to get contractors there, make sure that they make sure that these people are reputable moving forward.

I can tell you that in the experience from my experience last year, a lot of the contractors that we used were all reputable businesses in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previously I spoke in this House saying that we've reached out to the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. To date, we have not received a response from him. So to give an update saying that we're getting more information, we're not getting any information.

The Member asked for getting well, we need update committee. We can update committee once we have information to provide. He talks about the website. We have other issues and other challenges, and we're more than willing to share information once we have current and important...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to the Alberta work plan to develop regulations to allow for the release of treated oil sand tailing water technical report to fill the knowledge gaps are expected to be shared with ENR this fall. No information other than the work plan and the RFP to hire contractors to fill knowledge gaps have been shared with ENR. These documents are public and presently out there.

Our next scheduled update from the Alberta mining/water science team is scheduled for early June. We will be working, once we have new information and we will make sure we get that to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Damage assessment reports are being provided by the assessment contracting to MACA as they become completed. So in other words, as soon as the assessors are completing their report, it's given to our pathfinders. From that time, the damage assessors are at the home to the time their reports are provided to the homeowners can take several weeks. We ask the people to be patient. We have seven assessors on the ground, and they are working hard to get this work done. But we also want them to take the required time that they need to go through with the assessment. So what we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we lined up four abatement companies to get in there, into the community, as soon as it was safely to do so.

In regards to the cost, the GNWT government is coordinating emergency work with, and the GNWT will cover the cost for those who prefer to coordinate the work themselves, there's an opportunity to submit backup documentation and seek reimbursement for work through an eventual claiming for disaster assistance. But if they use the four companies right now, that will be covered by the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.