Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is requesting a total of $54.7 million for the 2006-2007 fiscal year, an increase of 2.6 million dollars, or five percent, for the 2005-2006 Main Estimates.

The proposed main estimates reflect the commitment this government made in establishing a new Department of Environment and Natural Resources last year to the protection and conservation of our environment and the sustainable development of natural resources. These estimates are based on the vision of a healthy environment that is capable of supporting traditional lifestyles within a modern economy.

The proposed budget for 2006-2007 is distributed across four main estimates:

• • wildlife, $12.9 million;
• • forest management, $29.1 million;
• • environmental protect, $2.7 million;
• • corporate management, $9.9 million, which also included the environmental assessment unit and the corporate services shared with Industry, Tourism and Investment.

A number of investments are being proposed in the 2006-2007 budget are as follows:

The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to play a key role in the review of development projects through environmental impact assessment processes. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will continue to coordinate our government's input, analysis and positions on development applications in the Northwest Territories.

Regions across the Northwest Territories are also being directly impacted by increased development. To meet this growing demand for environmental assessment and regulatory reviews, we are planning to establish environmental assessment officers in the Inuvik, Sahtu, and Deh Cho regions and another environmental analysis position at headquarters.

As well, new regional environmental protection officers are planned for the South Slave and Sahtu. This $700,000 investment will ensure that we continue to work closely with communities and industries as development proceeds.

Best management practices are used to guide industry and regulatory agencies' actions to prevent and reduce impacts to the environment including impacts on forests and wildlife. The department is planning to invest $150,000 to develop best environmental management practice guidelines. These guidelines will be key in identifying appropriate measures that can be routinely taken to mitigate known potential environmental impacts from development and resources used.

Climate change and its impacts are another major concern of our residents. The changes in climatic conditions in our territory are having an impact on the landscape. Residents are reporting change in the health and migration of wildlife. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources plans to establish a climate change specialist position to work with all our partners involved in climate change actions in the Northwest Territories.

The availability of "blue chip" information is critical to the department to be able to consult with partners and stakeholders and to make required decisions, from assisting in identifying the necessary actions related to caribou management in the Northwest Territories or to contribute to national issues such as forest inventories and management and Wildlife Disease Strategy.

In support of having the best information available, the department has designed a wildlife management information system to store, analyze and distribute data related to wildlife management. We are continuing our efforts to enter current and historical data in the system. This will provide an information database for decision-makers and will ease the process of making data available to the public, communities and industry. Accelerating the entry of data from the past 30 years of research studies will expand the biophysical database for assessing impacts on wildlife.

Clean sources of community drinking water and a healthy aquatic environment are universal resources for NWT residents. The department works together with multiple agencies, including other GNWT departments, to safeguard water and will continue efforts to protect community drinking water sources.

Work on new wildlife management legislation continues to be a priority for this government. Funding has been identified to finalize consultation and development of a new NWT Species at Risk Act and continue working towards a revised Wildlife Act.

I look forward to the committee's comments today and I am prepared to answer any questions Members may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. At this time, I would like to recognize Mr. Villeneuve to read the report of GED.

General Comments

The committee then met with the Minister and his officials on September 21, 2005, to review the draft business plan of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Members also received a briefing from the Minister of Finance on January 17, 2006, outlining the changes to the budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources since the committee reviewed the business plan in September.

Committee members made note that the department is proposing to spend $55 million in operations expense and $3 million on capital projects in fiscal year 2006-2007.

Committee members offer the following comment on issues arising out of the review of the 2006-2007 Draft Main Estimates and budget planning cycle.

Keeping Communities Clean

During committee's review of Environment and Natural Resources' 2006-2009 Business Plan, we noted that our beautiful communities and wilderness are being harmed by an ever-increasing problem of illegal dumping spots that are littering the landscape. The committee is concerned with illegal dumping around our communities and thinks that some creative solutions will be required to eliminate this problem.

Recommendation

The committee on Governance and Economic Development recommended the departments of MACA and ENR to work together to draft a strategy to help communities and the surrounding areas stay clean, litter free and eliminate illegal dumping.

The government replied that MACA, through its infrastructure acquisition plan, provides funding to community governments for solid waste disposal sites and they are responsible for enacting and enforcing bylaws to regulate solid waste disposal sites. Environment and Natural Resources offers the beverage container recovery program in the attempt to reduce waste.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. At this time, I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring in witnesses.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Does committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, can you escort the witnesses in, please?

Thank you. Mr. Minister, can you introduce your witnesses, please?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Bob Bailey, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources; and, Nancy Magrum, the director of shared services, finance and admin, for ENR and ITI.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. General comments on the Minister's opening remarks? Not seeing any, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to Environment and Natural Resources, just a couple of things that I continue to press the Minister on with respect to wildlife management in the Fort Liard area. It's with respect to buffalo, as well. It's a concern shared by all northerners. However, this particular herd around Fort Liard/Nahanni Butte, that area, they are classified as a free-roaming herd. That's all fine and good, Mr. Chair, but the department doesn't have any management plan, per se, of how to manage that herd. It's interacting in the communities now. It's destroying people's yards and gardens and some of them, their trees are imported and planted in the gardens and the buffalo are in the communities and on the highways, of course. Much like the difficulties people are having around Yellowknife and Fort Providence. So we have the same type of thing happening down there. They are on the airport runways in Nahanni Butte and Fort Liard. Local people have been chasing them away. They are shooting rubber bullets at them, it's to a point where it's of little avail. Initially, it had worked and all the scare tactics and guns were working initially, but now they have grown quite used to it. I think they are getting itchy to go on the airstrips to get their backs scratched.

It's a real concern to the residents in those two communities. They keep asking how is the department going to manage this herd and what's the plan. I believe the Minister committed to having a plan drafted with input of the residents of Nahanni Butte and Ford Liard. Before we can go on to another Member, perhaps I can get the Minister to comment on that at the end of my opening comments.

Another thing that is of high priority as well is that recently we were in Hay River talking to the Dehcho leadership and our government responded to the land use plan that was in Hay River about two weeks ago. Our government responded to them. The land use plan is something that the Dehcho leadership wants, but for me I am not quite sure if there was a real objection by our department, or if there was more concern with the department of how you get involved in the land use planning. I think it's a tripartite agreement anyway. Again, perhaps the Minister can correct me there. I think it's the federal, territorial, First Nations development that plan. I think the concern was that our government showed up late and said we don't agree with all these things, but they should have been involved from the start is the concern.

I would like to hear a little bit more about what is our role, if anything, with respect to the land use planning in the North.

Another thing that is highlighted in the news, people talk about it probably on a daily basis, is the climate change, even this winter alone. It's in the news daily. They say

global like Greenland and Iceland. I saw a special, too, on the effects around Tuktoyaktuk and that area. Even in our House, we have other pressing matters trying to improve the lives of the people in our communities, so we don't see too much of our role in climate change, what is our role. I know a lot of the global conference that has to do with climate change, how are we participating in that? Do we have a communication strategy? The people in the communities want to know these things. How are we going to get involved and what can our communities and people do to participate in this, as well?

Another concern of major importance, I brought it up to the Minister of Health on a couple of occasions, is the bird flu. I know it's mostly a health problem, domesticated birds, but lately it's been in the news that it's in wild duck populations over in Europe. This fall they had a bit of an outbreak in northern B.C. For me, I continue to press the issue, only because it has huge impact. Like even one of the main concerns in this House today is the drastic reduction in the caribou populations. It has impacts on people back home. If you extend that to wild birds, wild ducks, that's another huge staple of our northern residents. If there's a fear that this virus is moving into wild fowl, I am not sure what the impact is.

I know in the North, one of the ways we reduce our household expenses is by depending on the wildlife for food like the caribou and the moose and the birds of the air, Mr. Chair. People look forward to the springtime. When there is going to be a fear there is a disease, a virus in the wild bird population, there again, what is our communication strategy to ensure our northern populations that they can continue to do what they are doing, maintain their way of life without fear of repercussion, or not so much fear of repercussion, but more a fear of this pandemic virus that's out there. It's making its way to North America. I am not too sure about the communication strategy. I believe that's got to be done soon because fear is a strange thing. It moves through people so quickly. It happened too about 12 years ago and it said the fish in our river system have high levels of toxins, so people never ate fish for a long time until they were certain again that perhaps that one report had gotten blown out of proportion.

Here's another situation that could get blown out of proportion unless we have some kind of communication strategy soon and get out and inform our people to the best of our knowledge with up-to-date and current information. That's all our people ask for, is to continually be heard. That's what they are saying. We want to be informed on these few issues, so I think we owe it upon ourselves to do our best, research it and get back to them and say...Well, I am not too sure what we are going to say, but the main thing, Mr. Chair, is that we have to be on top of it. It's a moving concern and I know that our northerners are gravely concerned with respect to the wild fowl.

I will end my comments there, Mr. Chair. If I could get the committee's indulgence and get the Minister to respond to the concerns I had. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Is that okay with committee? Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just briefly with regard to the bison, the Member is correct. We have committed and we intend to follow through on our commitment to work with the communities to come up with a strategy. We are, unfortunately, pressed by operational capability right now. We have a lot of people tied up dealing with the caribou issue and other environmental issues, but we intend to follow through, over the course of the summer and fall, with the community. We recognize, as well, that there are concerns and commitments for us to have a broader bison strategy that encompasses not only the Nahanni herd, but the Mackenzie bison sanctuary as well as the animals on the other side of the river around Hook Lake and outside of the park.

So we do intend to follow through. We are very aware of the concerns in the communities and in the animals. I just request the Member's indulgence that we are going to get to it and we are working our way down the list and we intend to do that.

In regard to the Deh Cho land use plan...

---Interjection

There was a request from Mr. Menicoche to get a response and I asked the committee if they were okay with it.

---Interjection

I asked the committee members if they had any problems for a response from the Minister and he is responding. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the Deh Cho land use plan, yes, we are involved in this process with the Deh Cho, along with Indian Affairs, and we have been working with them and we did have concerns arising out of the process, which were communicated to the committee, but I will get Mr. Bailey to speak to the detail of this, with the indulgence of the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Bailey.

Thank you, Mr. Bailey. General comments.

Does committee agree?

Can you turn to page 12-10, information item, revenue summary. Page 12-12, 12-13, activity summary, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, $9.952 million.