Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2016 the Government of the Northwest Territories purchased NTCL and all the lands that came with it. There are substantial tracts of lands in Hay River that came with that purchase. We have had questions in this House about what is going to happen with those lands. Last I heard, there were environmental assessments happening on some of the prioritized sites. I would like an update from the Minister of Infrastructure on what environmental assessments have been done and on which former NTCL lands, particularly in Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is working in company with the Department of Infrastructure to carry out environmental assessments on property formerly owned by NTCL. ENR has completed environmental assessments of the Government of the Northwest Territories' shipyard and marine terminal lots in Hay River.
The lots were assessed, including operating sites under Schedule 7 party to the Northwest Territories Land and Resources Devolution Agreement. These sites were a high priority for assessment. The final Phase I and II ESA report is due March 16, 2018. ENR will share the findings with the Department of Infrastructure once available. Future remediation plans will depend on the outcome of these assessments.
ENR and Infrastructure are also conferring regarding former NTCL properties at Norman Wells, Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk. These sites will be determined and prioritized based on the assessment in 2018-2019. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Could the Minister be a little more specific and maybe outline which sites in Hay River? I know there are a lot of waterfront sites there. There are a lot in Old Town in my riding. I would like a little more specificity if he can.
The synchro-lift down at the site right along the lake has been done; Hay River barge storage area, which is also along the waterfront down in Old Town; and eight Hay River water lots, leased lots along inner harbour, as well.
I am glad that those are the sites they are looking at first. That is some prime real estate. It is beautiful down there in Old Town, especially right on the channel. Based on the initial findings, I know it is not complete and they don't have the final report. Does the department have an estimate, even a ballpark figure, for what it might cost to remediate these sites?
I think this is early days yet. We get the assessments back to put a price tag on these. Once that comes in somewhere, I can share that with the Member.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that, the last time I asked these questions, the Minister stated there was a best land-use management plan that is coming out later this year. I guess that will inform when we can start disposing of these lots. I drive by the synchro-lift quite often just to see what is going on. I see there has been lots of work done. Can the Minister maybe talk about the sort of work that has been done at the synchro-lift site to address the environmental hazards that were inherited when the government purchased that site? Thank you.
Significant amount of clean-up work has been done at the Hay River shipyard site last year. We worked closely with the Department of Workers' Compensation to ensure that health and safety concerns to the public and employees would be mitigated appropriately and to develop a plan and a timeline that the site's assessments, including human health and ecological risk assessments, to include long-term progressive remediation goals would take place. We worked closely with them.
We did some early clean-up around there around some I guess we would want to call it low-hanging fruit that had to be done immediately. We spent a significant amount of money doing that. That will be staged out in the years to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
