Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier, my statement was in regards to the Department of Fisheries and the responsibility of water and its resources. My question is to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and the question is basically founded on the reality that, here in the NWT, we have about 1.3 million square kilometres to watch over. Can the Minister inform the House of how many DFO officers actively work in the NWT to enforce federal and GNWT laws respecting water? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not quite sure of the exact number of DFO officers there are hired by the federal government, but I will gather that information and share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Recently this government has been trying to diversify our economy. In that effort, we are extolling the value of a fishing strategy and that we need to try to get communities involved and revitalize the whole industry. At the same time, we are promoting tourism and also sport fishing. There is an increase in interest of activities to be out on the land. In its role as the government of the Northwest Territories, how are we protecting the waters of the NWT?
The Member, I think, raised a couple of questions there. He was talking about the fishing industry, and then the question was about protecting the waters of the NWT. Protecting the waters of the NWT, we obviously have a water strategy that we are working on. As far as the fishing goes, I mean, again, that is a federal responsibility. We have been listening to some of the outfitters on their concerns with sport fishing, so we have had those discussions with the federal Minister.
It is pretty clear that there might be a strong case for us, perhaps, from the GNWT's perspective to make a trip to Ottawa and ask for more officers here because we have a big land mass, 1.3 million square kilometres, but also just fresh from the devolution experience. Are we contemplating the idea of more control and authority for the NWT? With that in mind, has the ENR Minister met with his federal counterpart to discuss our needs in terms of ensuring that we have additional officers for the NWT?
We have had those discussions with the federal Minister of Fisheries, and we have raised the concern about the number of fisheries officers. They are more concerned with, through the devolution agreement, putting responsibility for fisheries on the GNWT as part of the devolution. We are continuing to have those discussions, and we have raised it with them, but their concern is possibly giving the NWT the responsibility for fisheries.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is this the natural evolution of how we have heard devolution? It is ongoing, evolve and devolve. I think again there is an opportunity for us to perhaps push the agenda further on terms of taking on more responsibility for water and resources. The Minister has stated that he has had discussions with his federal counterpart on this very idea of taking more responsibility from the federal government, so is there a timeline in terms of this government engaging the federal government in terms of devolving more responsibility, especially for water and fisheries, to the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As far as the timeline goes, I am not sure. I will find out. We continue to have discussions with our counterparts in Ottawa. I think water, we already have. I think the discussion was more around the fisheries part of it. We will continue to have those discussions with the federal Minister of Fisheries. Also, on the ENR side, I do have a PT coming up, I think, in the beginning of November, and there might be an opportunity there to have those discussions, as well. We will continue our discussions with the federal Minister, and I take the Member's point about devolve and evolve. That is exactly what we are looking at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
