Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, who is also responsible for the Giant Mine Remediation Project. I would like to follow up on some of the questions that were asked by my colleague Mr. Bromley the other day about the environmental assessment agreement for the Giant project.
In the fall of 2013, there were some excellent hearings held by the Mackenzie Land and Water Board. They produced a very well thought out decision and a whole bunch of recommendations. There was a really good response from the responsible Ministers in response to the recommendations, but that agreement is not yet signed and it has been some six months since the decision came out. In response to Mr. Bromley, Minister Miltenberger stated, “We, along with the rest of the responsible Ministers, are waiting for the lead responsible Minister from AANDC to publicly announce the agreement and the agreed upon recommendations and modifications.”
So my first question to the Minister is that this decision has been unduly delayed, and I appreciate that the Minister is waiting for the AANDC Minister to do something, but he has a responsibility, in my mind, to NWT residents. I would like to know if he is prepared to talk to the AANDC Minister and push him to make a decision in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will continue to strongly encourage the Minister and his staff to give us the indication that we need, sign it off so we can get down to business. Thank you.
If the Minister is going to continue to encourage, I must ask him, what has he done in the past six months in terms of encouraging the AANDC Minister? Can he give me some details, please?
We’ve been working through the process and making sure everything is done. We’ve been working with the staff to encourage them to do that and we will continue to do that and move it up to the ministerial level. Thank you.
That doesn’t give me very much comfort. I know you’re working with staff, you’re doing this, doing that, but what does “encouraging” mean?
Can the Minister give me more detail? When he talks to the AANDC Minister, just what does he do to encourage the Minister to make a decision? Thank you.
It’s a federal site. The federal government moves at its own pace and we’ve seen that across the board. In this case, they have yet to respond, and we will do what we can to encourage them to carry out and conclude a response on this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. The Minister is much closer to the Minister of AANDC than the other Members here in the House and the general public, so I’d like to know if the Minister can tell me when he might expect a decision. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there are projected timelines, as the Member pointed out. Depending on when you start counting the five months, it could be this month, it could be in another couple months. We’re going to encourage them to get the response out sooner rather than later. That’s all I can tell the Member at this point. The federal Minister marches to his own drum. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
