Thank you. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I realize that the local people are used to do a forest inventory assessment. On the environmental baseline and the analysis of that study, if we are going to have to wait for development we might be waiting for a while and if it is going to happen that is going to be a component.

I was hoping that the department might be a little bit more proactive, especially in light of the fact that there was a project there already, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I should ask the department if an environmental assessment has ever been done post-Pine Point, post-mine. That is one area. The other area that I wanted to cover with the Minister today is the area of responsibility of the department, whether it is perceived or real. We have industry coming to the Northwest Territories on a regular basis. Industry is no different than government in a lot of ways. They do try to get the best deals they can. That is human nature and the nature of business.

When it is time to deal with First Nation organizations, unfortunately sometimes the divide and conquer method is utilized. When you have an organization such as the Akaitcho who is playing an integral role in devolution of the Northwest Territories and their participation is necessary in the discussion at the Intergovernmental Forum level towards devolution, towards revenue sharing - in fact towards provincehood - the Government of the Northwest Territories should play more of a monitoring and advocacy role on behalf of First Nations who are negotiating with industry. Whether it is Paramount Resources, whether it is Diavik or whether it is De Beers, it should not be left up to them entirely to decide who they can and who they will negotiate with on these impact benefit agreements and participation agreements.

This is something that was forced upon these aboriginal organizations by the federal government and this government with a three-month deadline to negotiate, which is the BHP IBA. There is a lot more riding on the responsibility of the department than would be seen if we just look at the surface.

On the area of traditional knowledge studies and how the studies are done, I would like to ask the department if they have a policy on how traditional knowledge information is gathered. There are some questions. People have been asked a few questions on the streets here and there. They have been asked ten questions and that is supposed to be a traditional knowledge study. That has been said in the past. I would like to know from the Minister if there is a policy.

On the issue of the role of the department in monitoring the Mackenzie Valley Business Management Act, the people that I represent feel it is an imposition on them. It is an agreement between the settled land claims and the federal government and this government. There is a federal lawsuit by a land claim organization for the federal government to establish Mackenzie data. The Akaitcho, the Deh Cho, the South Slave Metis and the Dogrib are part of the process in a very limited way. They are not voting members. The beneficiaries of any development in the Northwest Territories are those with settled land claims, so it is to their benefit to agree to development outside their land claim areas because they do get a percentage of the royalties from there.

If development is going to happen in the traditional territory of a First Nation, they do not even have the power to intervene, whereas the governments in their infinite wisdom determine that the mayor and settlement council have that power, even though they do not have any responsibility outside their municipal boundaries. There is confusion there.

Those are some of the concerns that I have and I hope that the Minister will address them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Government of the Northwest Territories, aside from the land outside the municipal boundaries and the resources out there, has the responsibility for forestry. Our responsibility lies in trying to develop a good forestry management program. In the forestry management program we talk about doing a timber analysis of how many resources are out there and where they are at. I think our responsibility lies only in that aspect. For us to do an environmental baseline study on our own is something that I am going to have to check on.

I understand that is still a federal responsibility until we are able to negotiate devolution through the Intergovernmental Forum. That is one of the aspects of it. We want to win the people of the North, the different governments in the North, the ability to take control of our natural resources and our lands which the federal government currently controls through the Crown lands. The land out there where Pine Point is still Crown land unless it is all staked out and leased out. It is still the responsibility of the federal government. In order to do a baseline study we will have to get the federal government involved.

That is the reason why, when I replied that the only way I could see it happening now is if there is going to be a proposal to put a mine out there, then we would do part of the environmental impact review process would be an opportunity to have an environmental assessment of the place, so you can get the baseline of it. So you have baseline information of that area.

I am not trying to be non-proactive, that is the situation that we find ourselves in as the government. If we did have control of all the land out there, yes we would probably have the power and the ability to go out and do these environmental assessments wherever we wanted to do them. We do not have that now.

I would also like to reply to some of your concerns by saying in the Akaitcho, through the framework agreement and subsequently through the interim measures agreement, there are provisions in there for the Government of the Northwest Territories to be involved in dealing with communities when it comes to talking about what kind of resource development that the communities are going to allow in their traditional areas. So there is a mechanism there through the IMA to deal with the communities in this regard.

In terms of impact benefit agreements, that is something that happened and there were deadlines put in place by industry and the federal government and we did everything that we could as the Government of the Northwest Territories to support the communities in trying to get the best benefits out of it as we could.

We feel that as a government, when communities are impacted and have concerns about it we will work with the communities to try and reach some better arrangements from the industry, once this has happened. This is how I would like to reply to the honourable Member's concerns. Thank you.

Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you. The economic development officer position in the communities, we have been transferring these positions to the municipalities in the past. We are prepared to look at that.

Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman the renewable resource officer from Fort McPherson is responsible for Tsiigehtchic. I want to refer back to my earlier comments when the honourable Member started questioning in this line about the 70 vacant positions within this department. I did reply that we are going to take a look at those positions.

The practice of this department was to fill these positions on a seasonal basis. About 30 of the 70 are seasonal positions for summer work and some of the remaining are for summer students and some of them are open positions so that Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development is flexible from time to time when they need additional people to help them out on a part-time seasonal basis. So that was the practice of this department. If the 70 positions are a problem, then I said we would clean it up. The department is going to identify the real positions that are there, the positions that we need. Whatever is left over we will eliminate. That is the way that I replied.

In regard to taking some of these unfilled positions that there are dollars that have not been expended, if that is the case, then the honourable Member is saying lets put these positions in some of the communities where there are no positions. Economic development officer positions are one area where we have been turning them over to municipalities.

In regard to renewable resource officer positions that is a different matter. That I would have to seriously consider before I could reply to the honourable Member, because the renewable resource officer from Fort McPherson is responsible for the work in the Fort McPherson area including Tsiigehtchic. If I do it for one community like that then I will have to do it for all the other communities in the Northwest Territories including the Dogrib areas and the Sahtu area and the Deh Cho area as well and the Akaitcho territory area too, where there are no renewable resource officer positions.

To do that that means we, as a department, in this section, will have to take a close look at the renewable resource officers that we currently have and look at the positions that are there, and look at the communities that do have people stationed there. It is a big question to ask and for me to consider. I need time to think about it and talk to my department. I will have to get back to the Member on that. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Mr. Chairman, the honourable Member makes a very good point there. I think if we are going to do that, for example, in Tsiigehtchic, then we need to talk with the municipalities of the monies that we already committed. If they are supportive of it, then we will have to explore those possibilities. So yes, I am committed to look at it very seriously. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments? Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is an act that is in place to look at the land and the water in the Mackenzie River area, when development comes in there.

There are provisions in there that we are fully aware of. We have been currently dealing with the producer group, the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group, indicating that there has to be a socio-economic agreement. Hopefully, that deals with the social and cultural aspect of the act the honourable Member is quoting.

Yes, we are familiar with it and we are doing whatever we can to represent people in the North when it comes to dealing with the producer groups.

As for the numerous other smaller exploration and drilling companies, that is a little more difficult to push this idea there, but with the producer groups, we have undertaken dialogue with them regarding a socio-economic agreement. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, traditional knowledge is the knowledge that the aboriginal people in the North have and have handed down through generations and through experience and so forth regarding the land that we live in through their way of life which was spending all their time on the land in all seasons and different parts of the country. So they are aware of the land and different animals, seasons and so forth.

Traditional knowledge is really important for me as well as it should be important for everybody here in the North, because we have a good knowledge of it from the traditional background. Having said that, as a government this department has been pursuing the inclusion of traditional knowledge in all the studies that have been going on. In the West Kitikmeot Study Area traditional knowledge provided through aboriginal governments that were involved in industry and all governments were included in that study, north and east of us.

The Western Northwest Territories Biophysical Study Consortium that I mentioned is proposing that again a consortium of organizations, the aboriginal governments, the industry proponents, the environmental groups, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government, we are going to be proposing that a research interest in the development areas along the Mackenzie Valley and wherever there is going to be oil and gas exploration be done. We create this consortium. The geographic region for this work includes current and proposed exploration areas and where the pipeline corridor is going to go.

Through the involvement of aboriginal governments we hope to have our elders involved to provide their traditional knowledge in regard to this proposed development. Mahsi, thank you.