Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had become quite concerned when I learned about a 900 megawatt dam being proposed on the Peace River in British Columbia. It’s obvious that we’ve now learned there are massive impacts of previous dams to the Peace-Athabasca and the Slave River Delta and, of course, on down to the Mackenzie Basin. Apparently, according to the paper, we’re only getting notified of these sorts of things. Based on the record of the impacts of these sorts of things I’d like to know if the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources thinks that’s a sufficient position to be taking at this point in time. Thank you.
The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re aware of the proposed Site C project. The work has been underway for, actually, a number of years and they’re moving through their environmental process. We have been registered on their list of concerned parties. I agree with the Member that there are things we have to pay close attention to. We have a call scheduled with the Minister from B.C., the Environment Minister, to discuss some of the concerns. For example, there are a lot of downstream issues.
For us, as a jurisdiction, we have yet to conclude our bilateral agreement with B.C. under the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Agreement, which is a critical agreement that we want to place a lot of weight on. Next week we are going to be tabling in the House our Water Strategy that is a result of direction and strong support out of the 15th Assembly and this Assembly as a priority, that which will give us our policy base to move forward on dealing more effectively with our transboundary issues. So it is an issue of concern. Thank you.
I’m happy to hear we’re doing more than what the newspaper reported and officials of the department reported as a wait-and-see approach. Obviously we already know from B.C. officials that the flow of the river is being shaped through this new project, or will be shaped, to service peak need periods such as winter. So this takes us away from the natural flow, which we now understand has major impacts on river systems and basins which have evolved to require those seasonal peaks and lows to maintain diversity and so on. So I’m wondering, will the Minister commit to a more active intervention, given that this information has already been put on the table, to try and let the British Columbia government know while we’re doing these other negotiations. I don’t want to see us waiting for everything while these sorts of things are going ahead. Thank you.
If I can use a military term: we are going to be all hands on deck for when the Water Strategy is tabled in this House. We’ve got things underway to make sure that we are at the tables. The bilateral negotiations, I think, are very critical and will give us the vehicle and the opportunity to make the concern about the impact. I would suggest, in fact, that the natural flow of the Peace ceased to really exist when the Bennett Dam went in and the Peace-Athabasca Delta, for the most part, was dramatically impacted and it’s never really recovered. We want to deal with integrated watershed management and cumulative impact in the Mackenzie River Basin.
Site C is one of the issues, along with the proposed dam on the Slave, a lot of the activity around Fort McMurray. We also have concerns in the Peel Watershed that we have to address. So we have many issues before us and we are going to be, like I said, all hands on deck, and we’re going to be moving on these initiatives across the board. Thank you.
Thanks for the comments from the Minister. That provides some assurance that we are focusing here. I’d like to know how the NWT Water Strategy will, in fact, guide us in responding to these sorts of things. We put a lot of money, time, resources and so on into that and I’ve been happy to participate in that. I think it’s a good project. I look forward to seeing the final document, but how will that guide us in responding to projects such as this? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Water Strategy looks at the whole hydrological cycle, our water concerns in the Northwest Territories, our water concerns within the Mackenzie River Basin Watershed. It’s been achieved through extensive consultation and involvement with the aboriginal governments. It lays out all the elements that we want to make sure we have addressed when we talk about water issues, be it development in the Northwest Territories or dealing with transboundary issues. It’s going to be an absolutely critical piece of work, which is why we have invested so much time and money, to give us that policy base so that our thinking is clear when our negotiators go to the table, we know what they’re working from, and we know what they’re working to protect. Thank you.
Your final question, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I appreciate those comments. I’d like to know: will we be providing support for efforts to ensure that treaty rights to water are supported and are assured in this process and what is the schedule looking like for our negotiations with the B.C. government on the transboundary agreement there? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we, within the Northwest Territories, recognize fully and have had full involvement of the aboriginal governments and respect the land claims, treaties and self-government agreements that are there. Part of the challenge is going to be to make sure that those issues come to the table when we look at transboundary issues. Many of the aboriginal governments in other jurisdictions, in fact, are very concerned about that.
As we speak, there has been planning underway, as we reach the end point of the actual development of the Water Strategy, that we have people at work, I’ve been briefed, we are looking at getting organized to have a table for transboundary issues not only with Site C but with the proposed dam on the Slave is another big issue. I have a call in with Minister Penner from the British Columbia government and we’re going to lay out the concerns that we see and our need to have this process, and that our support is going to be predicated on some assurances that we’re going to get these bilaterals negotiated so that we are not going to be negotiating bilaterals after all the projects on the river system are complete but before. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
