Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are related to my Member's statement regarding the Kearl Mine tailings pond spills.
Can the Minister provide an update on impacts of the Kearl Mine tailings ponds spills for this House alongside the ongoing work of our government to protect our waterways? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, several meetings have been taking place with the Government of Alberta and senior representatives at Imperial Oil to receive the most updated information about the monitoring. I have also met with Minister Savage, the Alberta minister of environment and protected areas on this issue.
We have been informed that the water quality results have been stable and show no impact to downstream waterways or drinking water. Environment and Climate Change Canada's Fisheries Act direction was issued to prevent potential impact to fish not because impacts were detected. Again, the monitoring to date showed no impact.
ENR, in conjunction with the Town of Fort Smith, Smith Landings First Nation, and Fort Smith Metis Council, have also initiated a precautional weekly quality sampling campaign in response to the incident. Based on the monitoring and information provided, we do not expect any effects in the NWT presently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister. I think he's already answered my second question. I provided all the questions to him ahead of time, so he's just about answered all the questions.
Mr. Speaker, we need certainty and confidence in our partners. Alberta needs to understand how their work in mining and the oil sands impacts our way of life.
Can the Minister apprise as to how we will ensure the future management of discharge regulations can be developed in a meaningful way? In a meaningful way, I mean meeting with all the Indigenous partners in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, he did give those questions and I can tell you I just answered your question one at a time so I still have other answers for the information that you asked.
So the Government of Alberta is currently conducting assessments and scientific studies to fill knowledge gaps provided to decide on whether to develop regulations that would allow the release of treated tailing water. Alberta has agreed to give us significant time to critically review the reports and discuss our concerns with them before they make a decision to develop regulatory guidance.
The GNWT has received five technical reports that address these gaps. Four have been reviewed with the help of external experts, and one is under review presently under review. The federal government is planning to engage with Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations in NWT this year through a bilateral process. The GNWT has and will continue to advocate to Alberta to consult with the NWT Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations near the NWTAlberta border, as well as the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that. The Minister mentions consultations but it's a bilateral process he's mentioning. I'm wondering if he could elaborate on that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we're in the process of the Alberta government and Canada government is working to develop an arrangement where the bilateral they'll have the engagement. We've reached out to both the federal government and the Alberta government and said we need to be engaged; we need to be part of this process. I've sent a letter to Minister Savage and Minister Guilbeault, and I just recently sent another one there, again stressing the importance of us to be part of anything that's moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and mahsi to the Minister for that. I'm encouraged by the fact that they will have engagement, which was very lacking at the outset of the tar sands development in the early years, as we would have heard many statements of concern, something similar to the Berger Inquiry. Everybody remembers that one, when the pipeline was going to be coming up and down the Mackenzie Valley and there were a lot of concerns. Nothing was ever, ever heard from the Indigenous peoples. I notice the people from Fort Chipewyan have been voicing their concerns for quite a number of years. There's lots of cancer agents within the tailings ponds effluent, and that is not going to stop. Because these lakes, as I mentioned before in previous statements, that these tailings ponds can be seen from space. So they're very large. And those are just waiting, you know, to spill over and into our waterways thus ending our way of life with the water. And this is very concerning because right now we got waterfowl that we count on for spring hunts that are landing in the tailings ponds. There's many of them that have been killed through that process, and it's going to continue. You know, this is very, very concerning. I'm just wondering what message the Minister's bringing to the bilateral water agreement table without first having heard from the First Nations of the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you firsthand that the Indigenous governments reach out to me on a constant basis, especially about the tar sands and this issue. And it's been an issue previously. So I've had a number of conversations with them. I've been down to Fort Smith and met with the Indigenous leaderships there. I've had conversations with other leaders in the Northwest Territories about that. So the first and foremost thing is right now with the disaster that had happened in with the seepage and of 5.3 million litres of tailings released into the environment, I can tell you right now Fort Chip has done the monitoring. There has been no impact there. Right now in Fort Smith, the monitoring we have done, there is no monitoring. So we are working with the Indigenous governments. We're hearing their concerns. We've also passed that message on. The Wednesday I heard it, we had a Minister's statement out. We advised the Alberta government and the federal government this was going on. We advised the Indigenous governments. So we are taking this seriously. It's about as the Member said, water is life in the Northwest Territories. We take it seriously. So we are dealing with it as efficiently as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
