Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about the development of regulations for discharges from the Alberta tar sands. Can the Minister tell us what resources have been dedicated to this effort and whether we have the necessary expertise to fully engage the development of these regulations? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to be clear, there's no releases of oil sand process. Water is currently allowed under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act or the Federal Fisheries Act. The Alberta government has said its regulations will not be in place until at least 2023, and the federal government regulations will not be in place until at least 2025.
At ENR, we have employed sciences and experts as part of the GNWT water management and monitoring team who are reviewing the proposals to authorize each release, including those with regulatory expertise. We are also looking at hiring, or seeking external scientists' expertise to review the documents Alberta provided to fill six knowledge gaps identified to inform the development of the regulations. The team regularly engages with our counterparts in Alberta. So we are in constant contact with the Alberta government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Clearly, we're downstream of this mess, and there's a lot at stake with regard to potential impacts in water equality, aquatic life, and human health.
Can the Minister tell us what engagement this government has undertaken with Indigenous peoples and the public with regard to the development of a GNWT position and these regulations themselves? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question. The department has been engaging with Indigenous governments and organizations for many years as part of the development and implementation of the TransMonitoring Water Agreement and the Water Stewardship Strategy. I've met with Indigenous leadership about the transboundary water agreement implementation and I've heard concerns from communities and residents about the proposed development regulations authorizing and the release of treated tailing water. ENR provides regular updates and seeks input from the NWT strategy Indigenous steering committee whose members appointed represented to the bilateral management committee. There are representatives for implementation of our bilateral agreement, including the agreement with Alberta.
ENR will continue to provide input and ensure that Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations and NWT residents are able to share their perspective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Maybe he can share some of that information with this side of the House. Although I can appreciate the Minister's enthusiasm in saying GNWT is not supportive of discharges, I don't think that that's a tenable position for much longer. A more appropriate standard might be something like that the premier of Alberta can drink the discharged water directly.
Can the Minister tell us what the GNWT position is on discharges from the tar sands tailings ponds? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is not supportive of the plan to release treated tailing water from the oil sands to Athabasca River until we have all the information, data, and science to assess whether this can be done safely.
In this House, I've stated this publicly and make this clear to Alberta and the federal government. We will keep our Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations, committee, and other water partners, informed of our work on this matter which we know is a great importance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again for that, and I really do encourage him to share some information with this side of the House, because I haven't seen anything, and that's why I'm asking these questions today.
Clearly, there are issues with regard to notice and adequate engagement of GNWT when it came to unilateral decisions that were made to stop upstream water monitoring last year. The transboundary agreement, I'm not sure it's actually strong enough to protect us.
Can the Minister tell us what progress, if any, has been made on increasing and strengthening our role in the transboundary water agreement and how this agreement is going to protect us if the federal government, or Alberta government, goes ahead with regulations without us on board? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this transboundary agreement's one of the best ones in the world. We were very lucky in how we were able do it. And it is our standard moving forward with our transboundary agreements.
To ensure NWT interests are considered in decisionmaking on the oil sands monitoring, ENR made a request to the federal government and provincial governments for a seat on their joint oil sands oversight committee. We were waiting for a formal response from the federal government. The department has asked for it and received the work plans and requests for proposals to understand how Alberta's working to fill the identified knowledge gaps. The GNWT and the Government of Alberta have also agreed to regular updates at the senior management level.
Through our AlbertaNWT bilateral management committee, ENR is receiving regular updates from the Alberta's oil sand mine water science team and the last one was just, it was held this January 2022. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
