Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ENR. We heard through the grapevine and have been notified that the federal government, through Environment Canada, has suspended 21 of the 23 water quality monitoring stations in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister what his assessment is of how long Environment Canada would be suspending these operations, and does the federal government acknowledge their signed commitments under the Water Strategy agreements with our government.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government is aware of its responsibilities under the Water Strategy. We’ve had recent correspondence from Minister Duncan to that effect. This move by Environment Canada to put all these monitoring stations on hold while they do a review is, I believe, a part of the Deficit Reduction Program that the federal government is undergoing right now. The assumption is that once they’re closed, that they won’t reopen, however, there’s still the faint hope that once the assessment’s over, that some of them will be implemented or started up again. The fact of the matter is, we don’t have enough monitoring right now with everything going flat out. This will be a detriment to the overall work that we’re trying to do through the Water Strategy.
I guess the question here is how serious is our federal government in Ottawa closing down these 21 monitoring stations at this time saying that they’re committed to environment and water. What is it costing them through this reduction of the funding? Hundreds? Millions? Tens of millions of dollars? They’re only keeping two, one in the South Slave and one in Hay River. I want to ask the Minister here what other things we can do to convince this government that they need to pay attention to the water and put more balance to the funding, and not to allow industry to spoil our land here.
We know that the federal government’s taking somewhere in the neighbourhood of $4.3 billion a year additional money out of the federal civil service programs across the land. What those specific budget targets are, or deficit reduction targets are, I don’t know. We do know that we are engaged in transboundary water negotiations. We do know we’re involved in negotiations on devolution through the AIP, which includes water. We also know that we’re engaged with the Alberta and federal governments in setting up a monitoring system that was supposed to be world class, according to Mr. Baird who was Environment Minister at the time, to deal with some of the significant concerns about the downstream effects of the oil sands. We have those areas, plus we’ve been in correspondence with the government raising our strong concerns about what these cuts are doing to our ability and their ability to do their jobs where the federal government still has fiduciary and legal responsibility.
The Government of the Northwest Territories is actively engaged in negotiations with the Devolution Agreement-in-Principle. In there it states 23 monitoring stations. Right now we’re reduced to two. What is it going to cost us? Even in the list here, there are parks in the Northwest Territories that are not going to have any type of monitoring station there. What is it going to cost our government if we want to continue with all these 23 that the federal government is only going to fund two stations? The federal government totally disrespects the people of the North and the land claims agreements, because certainly it’s not abiding by what they signed. Can the Minister tell me how we hold the government’s feet to their commitments, to the fire, that they signed in these agreements with the Northwest Territories and the Aboriginal governments?
Of course, the best security we have is to negotiate the agreement-in-principle so that we get the resources and we control the decision-making and the processes, and from here on in if there are any changes, it will be done by people in the Northwest Territories.
At this point in time we’re still subject to the broader planning of the federal government where they issue out broad targets to departments, $4.3 billion to the government, and they’re going to find the money from everywhere. We’re caught in that process. There are layoffs across the land from the federal government side; layoffs in other jurisdictions as they all fight deficit reduction. The best way is for us to conclude, as fast as we can, a good solid deal that will ensure that we have that security and protection.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, does the Water Stewardship Strategy or any transboundary agreement include the provision that can be done if a responsible authority like the federal government does not uphold their commitments to protect water for the people of the Northwest Territories.
Currently the federal government does have that responsibility. What we are negotiating now is an arrangement with Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, mainly to, in fact, have a legally binding agreement that will address the quality and quantity issues as they pertain to water flowing to us as a downstream jurisdiction. We are, in fact, negotiating with the federal government to take over that responsibility within the Northwest Territories. But in the meantime they do still have the legal and fiduciary responsibility when it comes to water, when it comes to honouring, and they will continue to have, with relation to land claims and treaties, that responsibility to Aboriginal people.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
