Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Researchers with Social Ventures Australia, a firm that has assessed a federally funded Aboriginal Stewardship Program in Australia for the Prime Minister and Cabinet just released a case study of Indigenous Guardian Programs run by Lutsel K’e and Dehcho First Nations. I'd like to ask the Minister if he's aware of the findings in that report. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of these programs and we're actually proud of the fact that in the Northwest Territories we do have a couple of Indigenous Guardianship Programs. The Ni Hat'ni Dene or Watchers of Land and the Deh Cho KOD which means taking care of Dehcho, and we've seen how these programs actually benefit the community, they generate some good-paying jobs, they prepare young people to be our next generation leaders, but the guardianship program, my understanding, do even more because they are guardians of the land monitoring wildlife, tracking changes to watershed and other aspects of the environment.
They can help the GNWT meet our mandate for conserving biodiversity and responding to climate change and enhance our collective capacity for environmental monitoring and management. So it's wise of us to work with these groups and continue to seek their advice because who knows the land better than the people that use it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, research confirms that Indigenous guardians helps strengthen the community self-determination. How does the Minister see that benefitting the rest of NWT if a program was to be expanded?
Mr. Speaker, I see a great benefit to the work of the NWT because it aligns with many of our current GNWT strategies and initiatives, examples like the Water Strategy Conservation Areas Networking Planning, Anti-Poverty Strategy and Culture and Heritage Strategy amongst others. We think that the guardian programs can play a critical role in the stewardship and strengthening the government-to-government relationships.
Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I indicated the return on investment for this program. The report indicates a return in investment. I use the number 2.5 times return and the potential return would be 3.7, so that's quite substantial. Considering these enormous returns, how does the Minister feel about the government supporting this program moving forward?
Member is asking for Minister's opinion. I'll allow the Minister to respond.
Mr. Speaker, I always have an opinion. We will continue to work with these groups to see if there's resources that might be made available to them. ENR staff actually attended the National Indigenous Guardianship Program in Ottawa in early October and the purpose of the gathering was to highlight the knowledge of the Indigenous Guardian Approach to the protection and management of lands and waters and as with most of our trips to Ottawa, there was some discussion on funding. I'm not sure the nature of those discussions or the outcome of those discussions yet, but as we continue to move on with this initiative I will be happy to share the findings with the Member.
Mr. Speaker, leaders from across our country are calling for the federal government to fund the National Network for Indigenous Guardians. Similar to the program that's been running for the last 10 years in Australia. Does the Minister support that proposal?
Mr. Speaker, I spoke before about the success that we've had with the couple of programs that are operating in the NWT and also the success of the program that's operating in Australia, and we support the idea of bringing Indigenous Guardianship Programs to more communities across the NWT. Again, if it's a question of funding then we will work with our federal counterparts because we can see some benefit to the rest of the country if we have these particular types of programs across the country.
So I will make that commitment that we will work with our federal counterparts and through our own government if there is potential room for investments in these types of initiatives, we will be happy to have a look at it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
