Thank you. Corporate management, grants and contributions, total contributions, $1,906,000.

Agreed.

Environmental protection services, operations expense, total operations expense, $2,165,000. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have been looking very seriously in this area in the environmental protection services. It is a key focus for us in the Northwest Territories. In the area where we have the responsibilities, it is kind of limited, but in the meantime, our people in the North are telling us we have to be very vigilant with the water, the land and the air quality. We have been told to also take into consideration the wildlife that is there.

That is what we are doing. We are looking at the environment, the wildlife area. We are doing some work towards climate change. We hope to have a workshop by elders this year to talk about climate change. At the same time, we have air monitoring stations now, one in Fort Liard. We plan to put one in Norman Wells, as well as in Inuvik, because of the increase in oil and gas activity that is going on. We want to keep an eye on the air quality. We have an interim resource management assistance program that we have put into place.

In the environmental protection area, we are looking at baseline and cumulative effects monitoring. We have put regional environmental protection officers in a couple of places through the North. So we have done a number of initiatives to try to put some emphasis in that area. There is a renewed interest in our environment over the last year and we as a department are looking at putting together some initiatives that have been out there, that have been suggested to us. Hopefully, in the near future, we will come forward with some other initiatives that are out there. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned earlier on to other MLAs, our responsibility as the Government of the Northwest Territories, in terms of being out on the land there is mainly through the forest management responsibilities that we have. It is limited to that. The federal government is responsible for the Crown lands and the other jurisdictions that are out there. We are aware of what is going on. We also helped different communities monitor the area. We have helped financially in the Aklavik area, in doing some monitoring of the activity that is going on in there area.

Who is out there? The federal government is out there. They have Fisheries and Oceans, who are very vigilant, as well as the Northern Affairs officers. I understand they are beefing up their office up in Inuvik to provide that service. We are aware of that and we try to keep close contact with them. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department has regular contacts with them. They work closely together. They work together in areas like the oil spill alliance. There are different working arrangements that they have worked out between our department and the federal agencies. So it is built on understanding and working together.

We as a government here, we have a good working relationship with the director general of Indian and Northern Affairs here, so whenever there is a problem, then we raise it with them. There are frequent meetings with the director general and that ensures that we have a good working relationship with DIAND. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think that is good advice. I think we need to be vigilant and as these sort of activities are around us, we want to make sure that we protect our environment and want to make sure that we have a good working relationship with those who are responsible for monitoring and keeping an eye, make sure that our environment does not get damaged by the development that is going on around us. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

The responsibility is mainly with DIAND. Through the permitting processes, there are land use permits and water licenses that they have to acquire to do exploration. In those, there are provisions for environmental monitoring. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. McLeod.