Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I mentioned the short-sighted policy of turning fish-bearing lakes into mine tailings dumps. I’m wondering if the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources is aware of this and, if he is, if he’s trying to influence the federal government on this policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I watched a news article on CBC last night, where that issue came up, with some concern. They were talking about a lake, I believe, in northern B.C., right in the middle of some aboriginal land. They indicated that this is a practice across the North, so I have added that to my list of things that I want to check with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Very clearly, for us as a government it’s not going to be a practice that we’re going to be supporting, given our concern with water. The water strategy that we’re going to be tabling in this House is going to, hopefully, allow us to better address those types of issues.
Mr. Speaker, this sort of policy is obviously short-sighted. It ignores the fact that we’re having a lot of problems with our food and water but especially with our water. How can we be treating pristine examples that we have here, these resources, in this manner?
I’m interested in what the holistic approach, the broad strategy, of this government is to address the whole way we are treating the environment and how we’re going to pull ourselves into the New Age.
We’re doing a number of very critical policy pieces. We’re working to bring into this House tomorrow a framework document that’s going to lay out a plan for a water strategy.
Very shortly thereafter we want to bring forward a land-use framework that’s going to, as well, allow us to better deal with the issue of resource development — how, where, when — for maximum benefit for Northerners.
We have also set up a joint committee on climate change that’s going to allow us to look at the Energy Strategy and the Greenhouse Gas Strategy to see what we can do better. We’re working with the Energy Committee to look at biomass and the Hydro Strategy.
We have a number of initiatives across the whole spectrum of this area that are going to allow us to move forward, we believe.
Mr. Speaker, clearly we have many governments in the North. If people have been following the water conferences that have been happening in Fort Smith and Fort St. John and so on, there is major interest and major concern, especially in the area of water.
How are we going to ensure that all these responsibilities...? It’s getting to be a complex system out there, where there are various mandates and so on. Who is going to play a lead role in getting all these people together and on one page to effect the systemic change that we need to address these issues?
Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made it clear from the start of this Assembly that while the federal government has a significant amount of legal authority, we believe we have a significant amount of political and moral authority to move to occupy the field. We’re doing things like Species at Risk. We are going to bring forward the water strategy framework and the land-use framework. We want to build a strong northern voice on those issues, and we want to be ready to make all these northern decisions in the North for Northerners.
I would suggest to you that at this point the work we’re doing is going to, hopefully, bring forward a position that will allow us to consolidate all those voices to make one strong northern voice.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It all sounds delightful. I’m wondering how soon this can get off the ground and if there’s a way we can be sure that this side of the House will have lots of input into that process.
Mr. Bromley is eight months into his term, and he is already sounding somewhat jaded and cynical. We’ll have to work with him to make sure that that enthusiasm stays strong and that he will recognize that the work we’re doing — the climate change committee, of which he’s going to be a member; the water strategy framework coming forward in this House; the land-use planning framework; all the work that has to be done with the energy coordinating committee — are all pieces we’re all going to be engaged in. I believe Mr. Bromley will leave here in four years being able to point to some very proud accomplishments that he’s helped achieve in this Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
