Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of ECC. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Environment and Climate Change explain how his department is responding to the historic low water levels in the Mackenzie River that we seen over the last year? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. The department's role related to low water levels is essentially providing situational awareness of the current conditions in the Northwest Territories. Our hydrologists regularly review real time data that is provided through a number of mechanisms. This information will tell us the current water level and the flow rates, and this information is provided through monthly bulletins about the current water conditions. This information then can be used by departments or EMO during the freshet, by infrastructure particularly during the barging season, and this helps to understand the short and longterm conditions related to low water levels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain if ECC is anticipating low water levels in this year for the Mackenzie River? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while ECC is unable to predict how much rain or snow there will be other the next several months, it's safe to say that we would require an extremely high rainfall amount across the large geographic area to increase our water levels at this point. The winter snowfall amounts across the NWT have been extremely variable, and these very low snowfall amounts in Fort Simpson and sorry, ECC will continue to assess water conditions and distribute monthly NWT water monitoring bulletins to the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, and thank you to the Minister for that. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us what communications ECC has had with the Alberta government regarding the drought command team that they just recently initiated? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, I met with the Alberta Minister of Environment and Parks, Rebecca Schulz. We discussed issues of shared concern, including low water levels. We discussed the concern that had been raised by the NWT Indigenous governments, partners, and residents about our low water levels. We also discussed the water shortage advisory that is currently in place for the Hay River basin in Alberta along with many other water sheds in the province. Water use by temporary and longterm license holders has been affected. Through our transboundary water agreement with Alberta, there's a commitment to continue to transparently communicate about water use during these times of low water levels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from the Deh Cho.
Thank you. And thank you to the Minister. Mr. Speaker, the Government of Alberta has begun telling the residents to conserve water and that they've launched water sharing negotiations with all of their water licensing holders. Can the Minister tell us if the NWT is in a similar boat and our residents will need to begin conserving water usage like Alberta? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any decisions on water conservation will be informed by our snowpack assessments that we do annually and water levels of source rivers. Information would be shared with communities and with multiple parties involved in this discussion and further action. ECC will continue to assess water conditions and distribute monthly monitoring bulletins to the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
