Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of chairing the Mackenzie Valley Impact Review Board for six years, and I had also the privilege of working with the Yukon Environmental Assessment the Yukon Environmental Social Economic Assessment Board and also the Nunavut Impact Review Board. Amongst these three boards, I was able to work with them to create an MOU so we could work together and share information. But at the same time here in the Northwest Territories, I chaired many environment assessment projects here and so I understand what's happening here in the North in terms of regulatory process.
My question to the Minister today is that my concern is that we need to come up with a strategy. And I mentioned that in my opening remarks. So my question to the Minister of ENR, Shane Thompson, is that what specific regulatory measures will the government put in place to address the downstream users of water contamination originating in Alberta to protect the Slave water system in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question. The NWT continues and does participate in Alberta public environmental assessments and regulatory processes. The transboundary agreement with Alberta provides a number of ways to address downstream concerns. The agreement commits Alberta to meet water quality, water quantity, and biological objectives at the border. The agreement commits Alberta to share information in a timely way and notify the GNWT prior to development of the activity. Should questions of dispute arise, the agreement contains a dispute resolution process. Should the provisions of this agreement not be met, the GNWT needs the agreement was negotiated so that all legal measures outside of the agreement remains available. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister. When I was chairing the public review board, we dealt with Giant Mine, for example, and what we did with Giant Mine is that we had a lot of proponents that were impacted. So all Indigenous governments, the Metis, and we went through a review board assessment, environment assessment process, and we thoroughly examined that project and we made some strong recommendations and measures and that kind of thing. The thing is that the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, the way it's set up right now, is that it doesn't address the downstream users, whether it be in the Yukon or in Nunavut. And so we're only when I was the chairman, I was only able to address north of 60, in the Northwest Territories only. That's why we created this MOU to work with both boards and agencies and that kind of thing. But for me right now as it is, Mr. Speaker, is that the current transboundary water agreement between the Government of the Northwest Territories and Alberta is insufficient in addressing this issue on downstream users.
My question to the Minister is what steps will the government take to renegotiate this agreement to ensure it includes adequate regulatory measures to protect the water system for downstream users? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the transboundary water agreement remains one of the best of its kind. The agreement prioritizes NWT interests to identify throughout the years of engagement on the NWT water strategy and guidance from Indigenous steering committees. For example, it includes measures to protect aquatic ecosystems' integrity and ensures Indigenous knowledge is considered in decisionmaking. These agreements are cooperative and respected decisionmaking authority of each jurisdiction.
There is no reason to renegotiate the agreement. In fact, the agreement gives us the tools to address situations like the Kearl spill through our dispute resolution provisions, which is happening right now.
Throughout the agreement, we should not have if we would not have these tools and Alberta would not be obligated to share information with us or meet specific conditions at the border. Alberta's engaging with us on this issue. They have agreed to engage in a dispute resolution under the agreement and have put us in touch with Imperial to provide us with more detailed information on this matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, you know, when I was thinking about the when I chaired the impact review board, you know, we again, we couldn't really address any issues on the downstream users from Nunavut and the Yukon. And, but here and Alberta, it's the same thing. This agreement that the Minister talks about doesn't give us the tools needed to participate in their regulatory process in terms of approving a mega project. We're just kilometres down the road in Fort Smith, and my riding of Tu NedheWiilideh and Fort Resolution, that are impacted and all the residents of the Northwest Territories. So there has to be a way that we have the voice at their table so that we are able to have a say in the regulatory approval process, otherwise it's you know, we're going to be talking about this in the next four years and four years thereafter. Nothing's going to happen.
So my question now is to the Minister, again, the need for the national water strategy to protect Canada's water system against harmful effects from industrial development is long overdue. What concrete steps will the government take to advocate for and concrete such strategy and what timeframe is being considered? That's my question to the Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first, the NWT does can and does participate in the Alberta environmental assessment and regulatory process. I need to stress that. We do engage. We were part of that process.
In regards to the question the Member is talking about, the Government of Canada continues to work towards a Canada water agency. We have participated in the process and will continue to advocate for the NWT Indigenous governments and organizations to be part of any process that we have or they have. We've been having that's our letter. We've had conversations with Minister Savage. We're reaching out to Minister Guilbeault. And we're trying to meet with them, and we're trying to meet with Minister Savage as well sometime in April facetoface to discuss this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From what I'm hearing, then, the Minister had said that we the Northwest Territories has is involved in the regulatory process for approval for development in Alberta. I'm not sure about that.
Can the Minister provide a commitment that the government will prioritize a protection of the water system in the Northwest Territories over the interests of industry and will take proactive measures to prevent contamination from industrial activities from entering the Slave water system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And maybe I misspoke. What I said was we're part of the process. We engage. We provide feedback to it. We're not involved in the final decisionmaking. No other jurisdiction Nunavut doesn't have that with us when we deal with our diamond mines and that there. So we do engage, and we work with them there.
I can tell you right now I'm committed to protect the waters in the NWT. As I said to the previous Member from Deh Cho, as soon as we found out this was happening, we did a Minister's statement; we wrote letters; we've had contact with both the federal and the Alberta government. So again, though, I have to stress that right now there's no evidence in the water, whether it was in Fort Chip or in Fort Smith, that the tar sands that what has happened has had an impact in our waters right now.
Finally, as I publicly stated, I will not support discharge of treated oil sands tailing water without rigorous scientific or science to prove that the water is safe and the process is safe. And if the GNWT is not happy with it, Indigenous governments are not happy with it, and the public needs to be involved. So we're all a part of this. We're stressing it. And if it's not that, we have other processes that we can move forward on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
