Mr. Speaker, I want to speak today about environmental assessment as a way to make projects better and how it makes projects better.
Sometimes we talk about environmental assessment as if it's just an obstacle, as if it's some GNWT employee sitting in an office tower gatekeeping, checking off some boxes, and could they please just get it done faster because we have mines to develop and roads to build and jobs to create. But it's not that at all.
Environmental assessment is central to our co-management systems. It's enshrined in modern treaties. It brings Indigenous governments and the federal and territorial governments together as equals to make decisions about anything that could have big impacts on the land and water, including how to maximize economic benefits. Environmental assessment can make projects better for everyone. For example, it can recommend a road take ago slightly different route to avoid interfering with harvesting and wildlife. It can ensure that a mine doesn't contaminate the water and fish and that community members get to participate in regular sampling and fish tasting to confirm for themselves. But it can only make those projects better if there's full participation from all the top experts. That's traditional knowledge experts, elders, and scientists who have their own important information about how mines and roads affect caribou and water and fish and all the rest.
Most of our best scientists work for the government, and since devolution, the majority work for our territorial government. But what if the territorial government is the one proposing the project like the Mackenzie Valley Highway or the Lockhart All-Season Road? The GNWT has decided that its own scientists should not be able to freely participate in those environmental assessments. They're supposed to share their scientific expertise behind closed doors, and then the higher-ups in the GNWT will decide what becomes public. What I fear is being lost, Mr. Speaker, is the opportunity for scientists to collaborate directly with traditional knowledge experts in the communities about what the impacts could be and how to design, for example, roads better.
Ten years ago, I had the privilege of facilitating on-the-land camps bringing together TK experts, scientists, and young people learning to be environmental monitors, and I saw firsthand the incredible potential for that kind of collaboration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll have questions for the Minister.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.
