Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I would like to ask the Minister some questions as a bit of a follow-up to the motion that this House passed the other day with regard to the Giant Mine Remediation Project. I think the Minister is well aware that Members on this side of the House, particularly Yellowknife Members, are very interested in the recommendations from that report and are very interested in knowing what the GNWT is going to say about that report.
So my first question to the Minister is to know from him how Regular Members, particularly Yellowknife Members, can have input into the GNWT response into the Giant Mine Environmental Assessment Report. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the federal process that we’re engaged in as one of the responsible Ministers, there is no real opportunity for input into a separate government, into our position as we work at the table with the other responsible Ministers from AANDC, NRCan and Environment Canada. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. That’s unfortunately what I was expecting. I appreciate this is a federal response, but I also know that we as a government are sitting at a table and we are presenting a position. I think it is a responsibility of this government to allow Members to have some input into that position.
So I would like to know from the Minister, my question is whether or not I, as a Yellowknife Member, other Yellowknife Members, other Regular Members who want to, why can we not, or can we not have an opportunity to sit down with yourself, as Minister, or with other Members or staff of the government to know what the GNWT position is and to have some input on to the GNWT position, not the federal position, but what we’re saying at the table with the feds. Thank you.
There are officials from all the responsible Ministers’ departments working collaboratively on a response to the recommendations of the review panel, and that process precludes the ability to sit down with us specifically to lay out what the Members would like to see. If the Member wants to have a discussion with myself and with officials from ENR about the report, we’d be happy to do that, but there is no door or no table where the MLAs can come to the seat, come to the table with all the other officials as we collectively work on the response. Thank you.
That is what I’m asking. I’m asking for an opportunity for Members who want to hear from you as Minister and from staff, what we are putting forward in this joint group that is developing a response, a federal response. We get briefings all the time, and what I’m asking is for a briefing on what the GNWT is saying at the table where this federal response is being developed.
Will the Minister commit to a briefing to myself, in particular, but to any other Members who wish to attend to know what we are saying at the table with the feds?
I will make a commitment to sit down and provide a briefing of what is possible, given the constraints that we function under, and it may not be the full detail that the Member is requesting. This is a process that is defined under the federal process and it’s not one where there’s an opportunity for that type of debate, but I will commit to check to see what is possible, given the Member’s request.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for the commitment to look into it. I would certainly hope that there would not be anything except perhaps a legal requirement that stands in the way of this kind of consultation. We are a consensus government. We share the responsibility with the federal government and we as Members share the responsibility with our Minister on this particular response. I think it is imperative that the Minister do everything he can to allow Members on this side of the House to have some input into what we’re saying to the feds. I’d like to know from the Minister when I might expect a response on his commitment.
Before we prorogue at the end of next week.
Thank you, Michael Miltenberger. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
