Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I was in Fort Good Hope, the elder Thomas Manuel asked about the conditions of our fish and our food, and he wanted me to ask the Minister of ENR if there is anything in the plans that would see a laboratory in the Sahtu region because of the recent increase of the exploration and the development and new laws coming through Ottawa. Any types of plans in place for a laboratory that would check on the fish or the animals that we’re eating since the scare of the XL Foods that has happened down south? He wanted me to ask the Minister that question.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What is in the works is a territory-wide, community-based water monitoring system that we are in the process of setting up with the ENR and the communities and the Aboriginal government so that, in fact, we can start addressing some of those very concerns that his constituent Mr. Manuel raised.
Some of our reports say that about close to 70 to 80 percent of our foods come from the land, and so we have a fundamental right, or we want a fundamental protection of our foods that are on our land. That’s why the elder asked if there is any type of plan where they would check on the fish and check on the animals that we eat.
I want to ask the Minister, would he also look within his federal counterparts if there are any types of plans in place that could be placed in Fort Good Hope.
We’re working on this initiative with the communities, the territorial government. We have a lot of interest by a number of very committed NGOs, as well, that are very interested in this whole idea of community-based water monitoring to establish the baseline of information to be able to make the determination in the area that the Member, once again, has raised as a concern that have been brought to him by his constituents.
In northern Alberta it’s been announced that there are high levels of mercury in the moose and the waterfowl tests that the people are hunting down there now. Slowly that will come up in the Northwest Territories. Because of the new laws that are coming up North here, we in the Sahtu, and especially elders like Thomas Manuel want to ensure that any type of protection that we have such as establishing a laboratory in Fort Good Hope or in the Sahtu that would give some early indication that we better pay attention to what is coming down into our air, our land and water. I ask the Minister for any types of reports recently that showed if the high levels of these types of toxins are in our animals.
One of the most obvious areas that we want to monitor, of course, is the water, the Mackenzie, which comes through Great Slave Lake which in turn goes through the Slave into the Peace-Athabasca. There are monitoring efforts being looked at all the way from northern Alberta down right to the Arctic Ocean.
We are committed to this community-based water monitoring initiative that will give us that baseline information that will allow us to check the water, fish and sediments. It will also allow us for some of the airborne pollutants, as well, that we can hopefully measure.
If we are going to track the issues that are in the mercury, for example, the other heavy metals and all polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and acetic acids and all these other exotic substances, then we need to have the ability to have that community-based water monitoring. That’s our starting point and our commitment. Thank you.
