Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement, my questions today, as mentioned, are to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. To the Minister, has the Department of ECC been involved in the environmental assessment for the line 490 replacement project in Norman Wells? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the department is participating in the environmental assessment process for both the Imperial Oil line 490 replacement as well as the overall operation of the Norman Wells program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question to the Minister is to what degree is the department involved in the 490 process specifically? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has submitted several information requests to Imperial Oil to better understand the plans for the line replacement project as well as the implications of the project on the local communities. Also, the purpose of the information requests from the GNWT is to help us make suggestions on potential mitigations, if they are necessary for the proposed line replacement, and several of the requests have been simply seeking clarity on some of the processes. The department is aware that the old line was shut in and Imperial was seeking to replace that line to continue production. And we certainly understand this is an important aspect to help Imperial Oil continue operations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final supplementary question is, is the Minister aware that this EA, over 300 questions, have been recently submitted with a very limited response time placed by the board? This is a significant number of information requests for the line replacement project considering there is another environmental assessment in progress for the overall operating authority of the Norman Wells facility and likely another EA coming for the closure facility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was only recently informed that there were actually 57 information requests which comprised of approximately 350 questions in total that were issued to Imperial Oil for this specific project during the ongoing information requests phase. I'd like to note that the GNWT provided a total of 11 information requests, several of which were seeking clarification from Imperial Oil on some of the aspects of the project.
What I will commit to do, Mr. Speaker, is to ask the department to look into this further and have a discussion with the review board on the intended scope of the assessment process versus the Norman Wells operation, which is also ongoing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
