Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about the development of regulations for discharges from the Alberta tar sands tailings.
Can the Minister tell us why no information on these discharge regulations has been shared with this side of the House, or the public, since I last raised this issue a couple of months ago? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to the Alberta work plan to develop regulations to allow for the release of treated oil sand tailing water technical report to fill the knowledge gaps are expected to be shared with ENR this fall. No information other than the work plan and the RFP to hire contractors to fill knowledge gaps have been shared with ENR. These documents are public and presently out there.
Our next scheduled update from the Alberta mining/water science team is scheduled for early June. We will be working, once we have new information and we will make sure we get that to committee and to the Member. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Although I'm pretty skilled on internet searches, it would be great if the Minister could start providing that kind of information to this side of the House.
Clearly, we're downstream from this mess, and there's a lot at stake for us with regard to the potential impacts on water quality, aquatic life, and human health. The only thing I've seen happen is the release of two $60,000 Requests for Proposals for water quality expert advice to review what Alberta's doing.
Can the Minister tell us what, if anything else, is going on? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ENR has regular meetings with the Alberta government and their staff on the development of regulations. To date, there hasn't been any significant new information to share.
Alberta has made it clear that no decisions to develop a regulation has been made and that they will wait to fill knowledge gaps before deciding to proceed.
Regarding what ENR is doing, we are seeking expert technical support to support our review of the information we receive from Alberta. These Requests for Proposals have been and are expected to be posted shortly with the goal of having expert technical support in place prior to receiving the information from Alberta this fall. So we'll be proactive getting the people in place so that we can get this information. Once it's given to us, we can look it and provide information on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, but I shouldn't actually have to go on the Open NWT contract website to actually get that kind of information. Hoping that he can start sharing that a little more proactively with this side of the House.
I've also raised the issue of the refusal of the Government of Alberta to allow GNWT to have a seat on a couple of technical committees on downstream water quality. The Minister said he was going to get in touch with the federal government to try to secure these seats, but there hasn't been any updates.
Can the Minister tell us what is going on with regard to securing these seats on the committees and whether there was any contact with the federal government in this regard? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, previously I spoke in this House saying that we've reached out to the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. To date, we have not received a response from him. So to give an update saying that we're getting more information, we're not getting any information.
The Member asked for getting well, we need update committee. We can update committee once we have information to provide. He talks about the website. We have other issues and other challenges, and we're more than willing to share information once we have current and important information there.
To address our interests, the Government of Alberta has agreed presently to have monthly meetings with the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister level to share information about committee and decisions that are being made. So right now, we're still trying to work on getting those seats there. Reached out to the federal government. We haven't got a response there. But in the meantime, our department with our deputy minister and assistant deputy minister, we're having those communications with Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that update. But I guess what I'd like to see is the Minister committing to share a little more information with this side of the House, even if there's no progress being made. Like, it's been radio silence, Mr. Speaker, for two months since I last raised this in the House.
So could the Minister commit to regular monthly, maybe quarterly updates, even if there's no progress being made, so I don't have to continually raise this issue in each sitting? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I've stated previously, we receive additional information about the knowledge gap and Alberta's plan to develop regulations, I will share with the MLAs.
To be clear, no discharge of the tailing waters allowed from the oil sands at this time and no decision has been made by the Government of Alberta pursuant to regulations to release oil sands tailing water.
The GNWT understands and shares the concerns with Indigenous governments, Indigenous organizations, NWT residents, and MLAs on the potential release of oil sand tailing waters and continue to bring their concerns forward to Canada and Alberta.
If the Member wants to get monthly updates, we can't do that right now. We can provide the information. Should the Member, or any other Member, wish to get updates on a monthly basis, come see me, and we'll provide that information, even if it's no response. But we've got a little bit of other issues that we're dealing with right now, and I apologize if we're not being as timely as we can with the response back to the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
