Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I listened very attentively to the Minister’s comments, opening remarks, on his department here. I want to say that I would look for some clarification as the Minister of ITI has noted to me in our exchange yesterday in terms of the specific mini-hydro projects specifically named Whati and Lutselk’e. I just want to again remind the Minister that Deline also has a mini project and I am quite upset that, for some reason, this wasn’t mentioned in the Energy Strategy or just in terms of the move forward initiatives from the Energy Strategy for the GNWT as these projects have in the past been named specifically. Somehow this project from the community’s perspective is not getting the attention that Whati or Lutselk’e is getting in terms of identifying projects in presentations or even in the ads in the newspaper. So the chief isn’t very happy in terms of the government’s announcements on the Hydro Strategy. That is from the community’s perspective. I noted yesterday and read in the Hansard that Minister McLeod, the Minister of ITI has made some reference to the Deline mini-hydro project and the funding going forward. I am going to take those words on trust that the Minister is going to move forward on the Deline mini-hydro project in that area. I will leave it at that, Mr. Chairman. The community is going to wait and see.
Mr. Chairman, the initiative I like is the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program. I look forward to how these regional based positions will provide the basic education awareness and advice on energy conservation to all our communities in the Northwest Territories. I hope these new regional based positions certainly will be a benefit to the people in our communities. I look forward to that. Certainly, Mr. Chairman, the climate change is something that is in our discussion now with the changes to our environment here. I look for further information from the Minister in terms of how we are going forward in a respectable way that the communities could be involved in the Climate Change Adaptation Plan.
One issue that I do have is with the wild fires and the management of forest resources in the Northwest Territories. Again, the Minister has indicated that there is a program review of the operations. I am going to see how this whole fire review program takes place. It is being noted that a
considerable amount of discretion or decisions are made at the Fort Smith head office. Regional offices have to, from time to time, check in to get the green light to go ahead on certain fires. Sometimes my community members are saying, how is it that people from another area so far away can make a decision on our land? As we know right now in the back door in terms of what we know so I guess I hope this type of review does go to some of the regions that we are impacted by decisions. This is something that has been on the minds of our people. I know the people in Fort Smith do have a tremendous amount of work. I know people who work there. They do a lot of good work. It is just how the system is set up. I am very happy that you are going to look at the review of the operations, Mr. Minister. I think that is a good move. The community wildland fire protection plan is also something that I think is kudos to you and your department to start looking at something like this for our communities.
Mr. Chairman, the Barren Land Caribou Strategy is something that is very close to my people in the Sahtu, specifically the residents and citizens of Colville Lake have a special connection to the caribou in their area. Certainly the Sahtu Renewable Resource Board has had some good discussions with this specific animal that we feed on to keep us alive here. I look forward to some further discussions with the Minister.
Mr. Chairman, one issue I think that is going to be very contentious in the future and something that we should look seriously at is the water control of our waters in the Northwest Territories. I know the Minister is working hard with the Government of the Northwest Territories to look at the quality of water, the management of water and also the tightening up of water coming into the Northwest Territories. It is very scary when you hear reports on the radio and reading the paper about the tailings ponds leaking into our water system. We really don’t know the damage that it will do in five or 10 years from now or the amount that has been leaking, the amount that has come into our great lakes and Mackenzie River. This one here if anything and this whole government is the key to the survival of the Northwest Territories. If we don’t have water for 10, 15 or 20 years, then we are in big trouble. I encourage the government through this Minister to really fight hard for people. He’s at the forefront because his riding is right there. He has a lot at stake here. I know this is something that is very important. I am very happy that the Minister has indicated that there is some work being done in terms of this water quality and monitoring. I should point out that we should really start looking at locations where we could monitor water along the Mackenzie River and report it. So often we see changes. As I said, Mr. Chairman, in the House that
my father-in-law was a fisherman on Great Slave Lake for… he’s 82 or 84 years old. He used to fish from the Great Slave Lake for many, many years. I think he said he went around Great Slave Lake five times in his lifetime. He has seen the changes of fish over the years in Great Slave Lake. He is quite concerned. He has seen the changes in the last couple of years when he has nets at the mouth of the Mackenzie River. There are lots of changes. He is quite concerned.
Mr. Chairman, I wanted to say to the Minister and to his staff, thank you for the traditional knowledge implementation framework. This is long overdue. I think the traditional implementation framework is a start for a lot of people. I hope it is done in a respectfully in terms of our traditional knowledge like my father-in-law. He knows the land that we passed on and used in the government system in making decisions, understanding certain things with the people and their ties to this land. So this traditional knowledge implementation framework would be something that I look forward to seeing in the next couple of weeks. I hope to see something. I want to thank the Minister.
Another one that the Minister has indicated on page 4 of 5 of his presentation is the Beverage Containers Program. I think that is a dynamite project. I am glad he implemented a plastic bag project also for our communities. When I was in Fort Good Hope, elders talked about those plastic bags being on their land. I hope we support this strongly in terms of this approach as we did with the Beverage Containers Program.
Mr. Chairman, I have other comments probably later on with the Minister but I want to say to the Minister that they are not doing too bad of a job. Thank you.