Thank you, Mr. Dent. At this time we will take a 10-minute break.

-- Break

Yes, I have witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to my left is Bob McLeod, deputy minister of RWED. To my right is Jim Kennedy, director of corporate services. To my far right is Fred Koe, the president of the Northwest Territories Development Corporation. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I will respond now. Yesterday, Mr. Nitah was asking a number of questions. In Fort Resolution, there is a full-time EDO position allocated to the community, but this has been vacant since June, 2001.

I have written a letter to the chief of the Deninu Ku'e First Nation, and told him that if he gets support from the Metis local and the hamlet, we would move ahead with this position. With regard to Community Futures, Community Futures has only been fully operational since January of this year out of Fort Smith. That takes care of Lutselk'e as well as Fort Resolution. It is difficult to see how it is really working. I think they approved one loan, so it still has to let itself be known and do the work.

The Community Futures board is made up of one member from, actually there are three members on there from Fort Smith, one representing the Salt River First Nation, one representing Fort Smith Metis and one representing the Town of Fort Smith. There are two members on there from Fort Resolution and one member on there from Lutselk'e.

Regarding the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board referred in its report to the fact that the proposed harvest area for the Pine Point area, which was the -- there was a proposal to do some logging there this year, the Patterson Mill, these areas are located in a forest type similar to northern Alberta. This information is provided to the review board by RWED and is the most relevant field classification guide available for this area of proposed development at this point in time. The forestry division in RWED provided that information so the board would have an idea of what it is that they are dealing with.

The board uses information supplied by both RWED and Patterson Mills. It is a standard practice in environmental assessments to use information from the proponent, which is then supplemented and analyzed by government. This is a standard environmental assessment practice, and is acceptable to RWED.

In the West Kitikmeot Slave Study, the five-year program ended in March, 2001. An additional year was developed as a one-year transition phase. This Friday, March 1st, a board meeting is set up to address future concerns in the West Kitikmeot Slave Study. The fundamental baseline data of that whole region is in place now and the department's position is that we will not begin monitoring, but there is still the need for the collection of more data. There is going to be a press release coming out this Thursday or Friday announcing the release of the study report on the state of knowledge report.

Those are the responses to the questions asked as we ended yesterday.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. We can always come back. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, the first concern with oil and gas and the activity that is going on there. There are a lot of things that people in the communities, the different organizations in the communities that want to get involved in oil and gas need in terms of resources and people. These communities are different from each other. There are different opportunities that exist adjacent to some of the communities.

We see that there is a desire by the communities in the Deh Cho, some of them, to start getting themselves organized to try to take advantage of oil and gas activities in their region. In other communities, such as in Fort Liard, they have been involved in it for four or five years and they seem to have done really well.

Hopefully, other communities that are beginning to get involved will do as well or even better. There is a template there that exists on how things evolve in certain areas. Perhaps we can learn from other areas in the North that have experienced oil and gas development and the people there have been able to benefit from it.

That is the purpose, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we know oil and gas is happening. It is coming on stream. The aboriginal leaders throughout the North have told us if there is going to be resource development that they want to maximize the benefits of the opportunities that come out of it. We as a government are trying to do that.

RWED is working in conjunction with the other departments, namely Education, Culture and Employment, on the training aspects, trying to get people ready. That responsibility rests with them. I am sure that as the Minister does his budget next week he will probably expand on what Education, Culture and Employment is doing with training. I know there is a substantial amount going on.

With our role in RWED, I think there are a lot of things that we still have to do. There is the oil and gas coming into some of our communities and regions. Each community seems to be approaching it on their own and there needs to be a coordinated approach. Perhaps we, as a government, hopefully working with the MLAs, we need to see what has been going on to date, assess that and see how we can organize ourselves.

Other jurisdictions south of us have been dealing with a lot of resource development. There are First Nations in the south that have found a way to work with industry in the oil and gas. We need to learn from their experience as well. There is a lot of work that we have to do to do that.

In regard to resources, yes, we need to examine what has happened with putting the petroleum officers in place. We have positions that are not filled. There is an explanation for the position in the Deh Cho. The position is not filled and we have to fill it. This government, this department has been trying to work with the Deh Cho First Nation for the last two years and we are not able to come to an agreement in how to fill this position. I think out of frustration and need for someone to be put in place, I would suggest that RWED move ahead and fill this position. That is one way of dealing with that problem.

The federal government has a lot of responsibility in this area. They need to look at their responsibilities, what they have to do in regard to their legislation that guides them. They are responsible for the oil and gas leases and the permitting and the conditions surrounding it. We as the Government of the Northwest Territories would have to work with them and we have to assess which area and how we can influence them when they allow oil and gas into our area.

Whenever we as a government meet with oil and gas companies we give them a general message that these resources belong to the people of the North and we are in aboriginal people's traditional backyards and communities. If there is oil and gas development going on then the people in the area and the North have to maximize the benefit of this development.

This is a general message and statement that we have been giving to oil and gas companies. I guess what we have to do now is take it a step further and see exactly what ways we can maximize the opportunities that are there for us.

Just recently there was a conference in the Deh Cho put on by the tri-council in Fort Simpson and representatives from the surrounding communities came. The concern that the honourable Member expressed was also raised there. There is also a need for people in communities and regions to assess what has happened to date.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of oil and gas exploration in all of our areas. In order to understand what is going on and to get ready for it we need to assess where we are at and formalize a strategy together to move from here. I agree fully with the honourable Member's frustration and concern and we will try to, as RWED, we have certain positions and resources that are available and are there for use of the people.

In terms of sending people into the communities, providing training, we have that and need to work more closely with the communities and the regions; the Deh Cho First Nation, the different First Nations in the Deh Cho, the Metis, we need to do that. It is here. It is starting to happen and we need to do this together. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. General comments. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to quickly say that when Mr. McLeod made his presentation, he talked about ammonia nitrate and I forgot to respond to it, so quickly, we understand the situation. We have to work with the Department of Transportation, MACA and RWED. RWED is responsible for the environment, so we need to -- I have also met with the mayor of Enterprise, so we are working on it. I guess the problem there was that nobody in the government or industry that was responsible for this ammonium nitrate notified the community that this ammonium nitrate was stored in the community. We will have to look at that and make sure that in the future, dangerous goods are well advertised and explained well to the communities, whenever the stuff is going through their community.

The other one was in regard to capital plans for the Deh Cho. I just recently sent off a letter to the honourable Member for Deh Cho regarding some of the concerns with parks and the funding for the different programs. I think I would like to leave it at that.

Regarding the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko's concern with oil and gas, again, yes, I hear what he is saying. As the Government of the Northwest Territories we undertook a project called the Mackenzie Valley development project. This project was formed as a senior level working group. This steering committee of the Mackenzie Valley development project is coordinating the preparation for the development of oil and gas in the Mackenzie and Liard areas. This group meets regularly to update on activity in the oil and gas sector.

There is a Mackenzie Valley development project division now within the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development that coordinates a wide range of activities, as directed by the steering committee.

We do work with the aboriginal partnerships. This key area supports business development, human resource development benefits and technical negotiations. To date we have contributed to about four different aboriginal organizations for this purpose, namely the IRC, the Gwich'in Tribal Council, the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated, and various communities in the Deh Cho also benefited from this arrangement.

One initiative in this area that is in the final development is the Fort Liard assessment project. This assessment looked at the six key areas of development impacts over the past several years in Fort Liard. Like I mentioned earlier, Fort Liard has gone through some oil and gas in the last six years and this Fort Liard assessment project is on the request of the community to take an assessment of what has happened to the community in terms of oil and gas, how it was approached and what the benefits and problems are. That can be used in other areas that will be getting into oil and gas activity.

We have been doing that work. In human resource development, we work with Education, Culture and Employment in developing programs for both entry level and more advanced positions in the oil and gas sector. There have been initiatives over the past year including safety orientation programs offered at regional community levels. We also worked on the Inuvik rig training program that was initiated through the Mackenzie Valley development project. We have supported rig training for various communities in the Deh Cho.

Various allocations through the Maximizing Northern Employment program are directed towards training people in the North for jobs in the oil and gas sector. This includes projects in the private sector and partnership with the aboriginal development corporations and worker mobility programs. We have helped out in this in paying for workers from one community to move into the job and so forth. There is work going on through this government in trying to address some of the issues in oil and gas. We are not just sitting back and letting all this development happen around us. There is a plan we are putting in place and we are working with it.

As for financing projects, there are some different projects that come on stream and as the different corporations and organizations from the community want to get involved we have programs in place that will look at helping them finance these projects so they will have some equity participation in some of these projects.

We are also looking at the Mackenzie Valley pipeline application processes, keeping an eye on that. There is a western Northwest Territories biophysical study consortium that this Mackenzie Valley development process has a lead role in. This one here, we will be looking at all the work and research that has been done on our environment to date. Wherever there are gaps we need to do more baseline study. This biophysical study consortium of aboriginal organizations, industry, environmental groups, our government as well as the federal government have been asked to participate in this. This will be similar to the West Kitikmeot/Slave study that has taken place quite successfully northeast of here in the diamond area, the barren lands there.

We are also looking at health and social services impacts of development. A working group has been organized to determine requirements so we are better prepared for the health and social impacts of development.

Another thing this Mackenzie Valley development project provides is information for services for government departments, community groups, other interested parties, and we work jointly with the Department of Transportation to try and identify what kinds of pressures are going to be on our transportation system and try to prepare for the impacts that are associated with it.

This Mackenzie Valley development project is a coordinated approach formed by a senior level working group to coordinate our preparation for oil and gas development in the Mackenzie and Liard sector.

The honourable Member also talked about vacancies in this department. There are 60 positions not filled, I am told. Looking closely at it, about 30 of them are seasonal positions. They are not permanent. It is for summer fire fighting seasons. The other positions are filled with summer students. Some of the positions were kept open for flexibility for the department.

I guess we should take a look at these positions to identify the real positions, to try and clean it up and perhaps whatever positions that are not real positions, we are going to eliminate them so there is a clear understanding of what positions are there. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the Minister for providing me with the longest answers to questions I asked yesterday. Mahsi cho, Mr. Minister. I do have some follow up questions.

Your answer on the eco-site used to do environmental assessment of the Pine Point Area. The eco-site used was that of northern Alberta. Pine Point being a unique area, because of its history of development with the Pine Point mines, should be considered when an eco-site is compared for compatibility.

Furthermore, the Minister himself stated that what is happening in the areas of exploration today is just the tip of the iceberg. Following that philosophy, we can assume that there is going to be major development in the Northwest Territories. If that is going to be the case, we should know what is going on, what is out there in the environment. The only way we are going to know is by using exact ecosites like the Northwest Territories, not someplace that is compatible to the Northwest Territories just because it is easier.

Would the Minister give me an answer on that suggestion? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we are going to be doing an analysis of the forest in the Pine Point area. Once we get that we will be using the true source of information for that area. Hopefully we start the work this summer. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is good that the department is committing to do an analysis of the forest. I think it is long overdue. I think it is something that should have been done in past years with people of the community of Fort Resolution who know the area the best. I would like to see if the Minister would commit to expanding the environmental assessment or doing a baseline information gathering in that area in light of the fact there is a group of people interested in reopening the site for mining and expanding on the old site.

The traditional knowledge component to that data collection and development of a baseline would be very useful and would be very helpful to the community of Fort Resolution. The people there would be very appreciative, I am pretty sure. The elders who are living with us would contribute greatly. As you know, Mr. Chairman, the inventory of oil and gas we have seen in the last few years is alarming and it will not live forever. Our resources and the knowledge that our elders have are on schedule, I guess you can call it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.