Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on questions from my colleague Mr. Nadli to the Minister of ENR on the Protected Areas Strategy and see if we can seek some clarification for the very, very confused partners that are out there wondering what’s going on with GNWT positions.
Last spring this government decided it wouldn’t comment on the recommendation reports and started to block their release. I’m told GNWT asked that work in the Deh Cho be moved to the land claims table, even though all parties agreed at the beginning of this work that these are not claims issues, a position reaffirmed by regional First Nations in recent letters to the federal and territorial governments.
So my first question. Will this government continue on the long-agreed process to develop and get in gear to supply its comments on the recommendations, reports and have them publicly reviewed? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a number of hours booked with ENR tomorrow at eight o’clock in the morning and I will confirm that issue, but let me just restate our commitment to the long-term over this process.
We’ve been involved for years. We’ve continued to, and we’ll continue to, be involved in the process. I would like to point out, as well, some of the political changes in the Deh Cho, for example, tend to confuse the issue as well when you start having overlap issues with ADK and other communities, and now the K’atlodeeche, in fact, as well, has indicated they’re pulling out of the Dehcho. But in spite of that, we are going to be fully committed and the Premier gave that commitment to the grand chief, as well, a number of weeks ago. Thank you.
Thank you. The Minister has told me by letter that the GNWT will work with Canada to conclude Edehzhie, which I appreciate, but then with respect to all of the other areas, National Wildlife Areas proposed, the GNWT appreciates the significant work undertaken. What does that statement mean? Thank you.
Thank you. As I indicated in previous questions, there have been meetings recently with the grand chief and some of the leadership from the Dehcho. There was an agreement to bilateral process to make sure we are fully engaged at the land claims and land use table, which would allow us to resolve some of these outstanding issues. We are committed to concluding Edehzhie and, as I indicated as well, I met, when we were down in Ottawa for the Northwest Territories Days, with Minister Kent and raised the issue of the funds that are currently identified for the candidate areas and the need for us to work out an arrangement to make sure that funding continues on past the implementation date for devolution. Thank you.
Thank you. I hope and I appreciate the work that’s being done there to clear up this confusion, and I hope to confirm that. The Minister has also told me in a letter that final decisions on the boundary and establishment of a protected area will take place after devolution. Again, what does this mean? This is clearly a stall statement. What does this mean and has this also been taken care of in recent statements, negotiations with our partners? There are other partners, of course, besides Frist Nations out there. Mahsi.
Thank you. I do understand that there is some consternation out there. I met with the folks from Ducks Unlimited, where they voiced their concern on behalf of the people they’ve been talking to and who they represent. We’ve heard it here in this House today. We’ve seen it in the press where some are trying to imply or impute that somehow after devolution, that this government, which I think is a leader when it comes to environmental issues and alternative energy, wildlife issues, land issues, water issues, is somehow going to turn its back on what the people of this territory have been clear that they want it dealt with for the last 17 Assemblies and it is causing needless fear and consternation.
So after devolution, when we’re fully through this process, we’re going to continue on with our commitment. We’ve negotiated these bilateral agreements with the Dehcho, for example, and I would point out once again in the Deh Cho, for example, the fact that there’s been political decisions made in terms of communities splitting away from the Dehcho Process and wanting to have their own areas. There is now overlap issues, there is debate between communities over candidate area and sizes. So we will work with the parties, all of them, including non-government, and I want to reassure folks that we are committed to this process and I will be, in fact, in this House tomorrow doing a statement on the Protected Areas Strategy to provide hopefully even more comfort. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s remarks. I can’t say I’ve got much comfort yet, but I’ll look forward to that statement.
Another statement from the Minister in his letter, “The GNWT will be promoting the use of northern tools for any future areas.” This sounds like a unilateral decision to me and ignores the partners and considerable work done. I wonder, does this mean there is no support for the National Wildlife Areas in the federal dollars that are available now, but will disappear if we don’t take them up on this? It sounds like the Minister will not support National Wildlife Areas and the flexibility that they bring. So what is the meaning of the Minister’s statement this time? Mahsi.
Thank you. It means, very simply, that there is a federal process and they have put some money aside for candidate areas, that devolution is being negotiated, that we as a territory have tools that we’ve talked about but not used very well and there may be other tools we need to in fact develop as we manage the land and resources.
I have had discussions with the federal Minister about the federal money that is there. This process, this protected area process was in place I believe before I became a Member 18 years ago and it works, the wheels turn very slow and fine. We’re at step five for all those other areas, which means there could be years yet if you look at the timelines and what we’ve done and how long it’s taken to conclude some of these further areas. We’re going to look at what options we have as a territory. We don’t want to be totally reliant on the federal government in the National Wildlife Area approach, and I’ve had discussions with Minister Kent about that money being left there and used there for either of us for Northerners, regardless of whether it’s a federal designation or it’s a territorial designation.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
QUESTION 241-17(4):
EMERGENCY SEARCH AND RESCUE PROTOCOLS FOR SMALL COMMUNITIES
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talk about emergency search and rescue effort in Tulita last summer and the help of many people across the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister of MACA if his department has this type of initiative that they can go forward in helping communities like Tulita where people just got together and did the right thing and people later on joined helping out with funding and other sorts of things. We need some help in our small communities. Is the Minister willing to look at some of these kinds of concepts that the Tulita people are asking for help?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I want to commend the people of Tulita and all the other communities that have good emergency plans. They seem to jump into action right away and they deal with the situations that are presented before them. We work closely with a number of the communities. We’ve been trying to work with them to update their emergency plans. As I’ve said in this House before, we have 16 communities that are updated. There are 15 we still have to work on updating theirs and there are a couple that we need to get them started on theirs. There is plenty of opportunity. A lot of emergency committees in the communities do take it upon themselves to raise some money for emergencies, but we will work closely with the community of Tulita and other communities to make sure they all have a good, updated emergency plan.
The community of Tulita and the people in the Sahtu, even government departments came and said, what can we do within these couple of hours we have. The hamlet did a fantastic job. The government showed up with resources. They allowed their people to come and help us. That’s the right thing to do in the small communities.
I want to ask the Minister, with regard to the emergency search and rescue funding, can the Minister bring forward a type of initial discussion paper to see how we can fund these emergency search and rescue efforts in our communities?
That’s just what communities do regardless of where they work and what they do, there is a need to come together and they come together. I think all communities should be commended for that. I will commit to the Member that we’ll look at this. There have been pots of funding available from the federal government that we have been able to tap into, but one of the programs is discontinued so we’ll have to see what they roll out for a new program. I commit to the Member that as a department and as a government, we try to find ways that we can access any kind money for the communities to assist them with their plans.
I look forward to the Minister’s proposal or discussion here. The emergency search and rescue needed some walkie-talkies, other equipment for ground search, water search, and that’s the type I’m looking for from this Minister. If he could work with his colleagues and look through his department and say, what can we commit to this emergency search and rescue kit that we have in any one of our communities in the Northwest Territories. Will the Minister look at that?
In a number of communities, as I’ve said before, they do take it upon themselves to do some fundraising for this exact piece of equipment. In some cases through the community government with the money that they receive from MACA as far as infrastructure goes, then they may have an opportunity to access some of that. We would have to work on it again and see what we can do to assist the communities again.
Communities, in many cases, take it upon themselves to try and access all this type of equipment, and we would assist them in trying to find the best pieces of equipment and giving them more of an advisory role. If there are opportunities, again, for any monies to be allocated, then we would have to explore that with Cabinet and committee.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
