The Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development is extremely concerned that development on NWT land is going forward without the establishment of a complete timber inventory despite the government's statements over the past six years.Honourable Stephen Kakfwi -- "The Department of Renewable Resources is planning to do a comprehensive inventory of timber in the Western Arctic. Hopefully, the inventory will be done over a two or three-year period."

(Northwest Territories Hansard, May 3, 1996, p.183)

Honourable Joe Handley -- "We are going to try to identify extra dollars to be able to put into forest inventory. Up until now, we have been playing catch-up with trying to keep ahead of the ongoing needs for inventory. It is possible that within five years we could have a complete inventory of all commercial forest in the territories, but I would think it would take at least that long."

(Northwest Territories Hansard, March 2, 1998, p.1221)

Honourable Stephen Kakfwi - " We have probably just a very rough guess at what the market value of the forest inventory up and down the Mackenzie Valley is."

(Northwest Territories Hansard, April 29, 1999, p.449) Honourable Joe Handley -- "Mr. Chairman, I would estimate that it will take us three to five years to get caught up in the Deh Cho. If you look at the whole Mackenzie Valley, we are probably in the neighbourhood of ten years behind. As Mr. McLeod has mentioned, given the interest in the harvesting activity, we will give this a priority."

(Northwest Territories Hansard, June 27, 2000, p.207)

Honourable Joe Handley -- "We do inventory on an ongoing basis in various regions of the territories so it is an ongoing process that is at different stages in different regions. In the South Slave, the Member's area, we are looking at a four or five-year process. We are basically at year one right now."

(Northwest Territories Hansard, November 6, 2001, p.673)

The standing committee notes that despite this current lack of a complete timber inventory for the Northwest Territories, timber permits are still being issued. It is the committee's assertion that the issuance of all timber permits should be suspended until timber inventories have been completed. The government must assure residents of the NWT that environmental protection is their first priority.

The committee is also disappointed to see that despite considerable funding over the past decade to complete a timber inventory, the government stated last year that we are now back at year one for completion. The committee has requested information from the department regarding the levels of funding for timber inventory over the past ten years.

If, as the committee suspects, the government is waiting for current outstanding land claims to be settled then it should publicly state that fact rather than consistently avoiding completion of the timber inventory.

However, if the government simply lacks the sufficient regulations to exert their responsibilities in this area, the committee would like to strongly suggest that the government rectify the situation and move forward with this project.

The committee will continue to monitor this pressing need for a complete timber inventory in light of the current development boom in the NWT.