Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Mackenzie River is a very important feature of the Northwest Territories, especially in my region where the river empties out into the Beaufort Sea and water levels play a very important factor in the wildlife and where it stays during the summer season, as well as how people can travel throughout the Delta.
During different times of the year, the natural cycle, I guess, would be in spring there's a high water level filling a lot of the lakes that don't normally hook up to the river systems and so on. But there have been a number of years where, in fact, we've seen either low water levels throughout the year, which is not a normal process, or high water levels. During freeze-up it would begin to freeze at that level, and then the water levels would drop causing shelf ice, as one term would be used, and being quite dangerous for those who use the waterways in the wintertime: hunters and trappers with snow machines and so on, and even building ice roads.
I see here you have the Mackenzie River Basin Board, and it's a contribution to properly manage the aquatic ecosystem. I'd like to know what has been done on that in recent years, and what impact we can have. I'm looking more to the future here, because watching the news and so on, we hear about Alberta's situation and the Prairie provinces situation with droughts and low snow levels, even in the mountains, and that run-off not being there. Is there a potential here that they could hold water back on us through the dams that they have in place? I know that's where we seem to get most effect from, when they either let some water run off or else they hold back on water being spilled over. So I'd like to know what we manage to accomplish or get through this board. Thank you.
