Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister further questions on the issue I just spoke about. Mr. Speaker, I live on the Mackenzie River. A lot of my people also live on the river and live in areas where water is their source of life. The Auditor General report from 2010 states that water quality monitoring in the North is not adequate. The federal government signed a Water Stewardship Strategy with the GNWT that talks about improving the water quality monitoring in the Northwest Territories. In closing, Mr. Speaker, the federal government signed a land claim agreement within the Northwest Territories that includes provisions related to substantially unaltered water quality.
I want to ask the Minister, in light of what the federal government has done today to suspend water quality monitoring stations on the Mackenzie, what is this government going to do to see if this agreement here that the feds have signed and we have also signed, that we know that our water isn’t altered in any way of the quality that we are receiving. Who’s looking out for the water?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Who’s looking out for the water, Mr. Speaker? We are. We, this Legislative Assembly, we, the working group, the Aboriginal Steering Committee that drafted and brought together the Water Strategy. I have on my desk a draft letter, that I have to get signed off before I leave tomorrow, to the Ministers, expressing our strong concern about what has happened and the cutback to those resources and cutbacks that are happening in general, and their inability to come to the table to participate fully through Indian Affairs with the water transboundary agreements. We have some significant issues that we’re going to have to deal with the federal government and we are taking the steps necessary to do that.
I look forward to that letter being sent to the Members for their follow up.
Mr. Speaker, the Mackenzie River three stations that were under the suspension are Strong Point, Norman Wells and Arctic Red River. The Mackenzie River has been identified as one of the only few critical river systems at risk in Canada by the World Wildlife Fund that’s not being monitored currently. The Mackenzie River should be considered international transboundary water because it flows into the Arctic Ocean, or a heritage river given its significance to Canada and the world.
I want to ask the Minister who today is doing the water quality monitoring on the Mackenzie. Is it industry reporting and being their own watchdog? Who is doing it right now?
We know, clearly, what has been closed. I don’t have the specific list of the other monitoring that is being undertaken, but industry would have responsibilities as well. In terms of broad overall monitoring of the aquatic ecosystems tied to the Mackenzie River basin, the federal government has the primary responsibility and they are scaling back those resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Shame on this federal government for scaling back on such an essential part of our life: the water.
I want to ask the Minister, the water quality monitoring in our national parks has been suspended, leaving our parks really vulnerable. I want to ask the Minister, in his Water Strategy with the federal government, now, I’m not too sure how good that document is, but I believe the Minister is working very hard and it’s a fine document. What will it take the federal government to know that these responsibilities, the core of our people, and leaving national parks in as vulnerable a position as this, when mining is so actively involved in our area and in parks that are going to be established, and the ones that have already been established? What is the Minister doing?
This gets us back to the issue of devolution and taking over authority for land, water and resource development in the Northwest Territories. Right now we are at the mercy of the federal government. They will consult with us, but really they have the whip hand as it were. So if we get a devolution deal, as the Premier has been saying, Northerners will finally make decisions in the North, about the North, for the North, by Northerners. Right now we’re having this discussion about decisions that remain 4,000 or 5,000 miles away. We weren’t consulted. We just got the notification that we shared with the Members. So if there was ever impetus and a good reason why Northerners should say let’s come together and take this over and move forward to become the decision-makers in our own land, this has to be it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister makes a good point. Maybe it’s about time that we get our act together, as they’ve been saying, and work on this, because the federal government sure ain’t taking care of us in the North, and it shows right now, it’s black and white with red all over that they are going to do things for us that are not good. I think what I want to ask the Minister in regard to devolution is why are we going to talk about only two monitoring stations that are right now in the federal government’s responsibility when we want all 21 more. The federal government is killing us, really, Mr. Speaker. So I want to ask the Minister is it still good to go ahead with devolution.
Thank you. This is the time for devolution. We’ve been waiting forty-some years since 1967. The Member has stood here in the most impassioned way decrying what’s happening to us, decisions being made by a far-away government that we have no control over, money being taken away, fiduciary obligations not looked after, legal obligations and land claims brought into question.
Mr. Speaker, I would think if the Member would stand up and say yes, this is time for devolution, that we can do this as Northerners to take over those authorities to protect the interests today and for tomorrow, because right now it’s not happening.
