Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intent of the Volunteer Summit is to have folks come from across the Northwest Territories and try to share common ideas to see what the best way to move forward is. As we all know, volunteers are an important part across the Northwest Territories. We’re starting to find that a lot of volunteers in the smaller communities especially are having some issues, they’re being burned out. We’re hoping to bring everyone together, to come up and share ideas, share thoughts, and have a plan to move this forward.

I’d like to thank the Minister of MACA for that information. The voluntary sector, which includes NGOs, is quite a large sector in the Northwest Territories. Can the Minister responsible for MACA give me a bit of an idea of how many participants they expect in this summit and will most of the regions, including Yellowknife, be covered?

We are hoping to get a good cross-section of folks from across the Northwest Territories, all regions. That would include Yellowknife. Throughout all of this we’re hoping to get a report and have it possibly incorporated into the business plan with some of the ideas and recommendations this summit comes up with.

I’ve heard from a couple of the NGOs in town who say they haven’t seen an invite or anything yet, groups such as the Centre for Northern Families and the John Howard Society. Could I get the Minister to commit to having his department review the list of NGOs in the voluntary sector organizations within the North to make sure we’ve captured everybody? I think this is an important summit and we should have as many people there as we can.

MACA recognizes the importance of the summit and this is something that we’re hoping to use as a tool to gather all the information. If we can capture all the different volunteer groups out there and the NGOs and bring them into the same place and come up with some ideas I think it will be something that will serve this government and the volunteer sector well.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that. I’ve heard through the grapevine that during this summit there’s also going to be a separate meeting going on at the same time to discuss funding NGOs under the current policy and setting up some frameworks for funding around how we as a government work and deal with the NGOs. I believe that’s being done by Finance or the FMB. Could the Minister tell me if he’s aware of that meeting? I’ve also heard that it’s going to be a very small group of people who will be participating in that side of the thing that’s going on at the same time. If he could give me any insight into that it would be fantastic.

The Volunteer Summit is being co-hosted by MACA and the FMB and the FMB is hoping to, I can’t speak for the Minister, but their intent is to get all the NGOs and work on…Well, I can’t answer for him and I won’t even try. But it is being co-hosted by MACA and FMB and the FMB intent is to speak to the NGOs.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ENR in terms of the water issue in northern Alberta. We heard reports of leakage of the Fort McMurray oil sands. We hear other reports of other potential contamination of the waters. The Minister’s riding is the gatekeeper of our water sources down the Mackenzie Valley. I would ask the Minister, in terms of his recent meetings with the Alberta officials, what he can tell the people of the Northwest Territories, especially in my region, who will feel the effects of the water quality in the Mackenzie River in terms of our fish, our wildlife, and the animals that use the water to survive. How is he going to communicate to the people that water is taken very seriously and that it will be monitored in the Mackenzie River?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the meeting with the Alberta Minister of Finance we raised the issue of prior notification when there are spills of any substantive nature and the need to have an agreement for that notification. Right now we don’t have a formal notification. For example, a few weeks back there was almost 400,000 litres of water released unknowingly. We heard about it in the news. We talked to her about the need to get our bilateral agreement signed under the Mackenzie River Basin

Trans-boundary Agreement. We updated her on our Water Strategy. As part of the MOU, of course, we’re going to be meeting regularly on these issues as well. Finally, we talked about the need for assessing cumulative impact and the need for integrated watershed management between all the jurisdictions in the Mackenzie River Basin.

I certainly look forward to the Minister’s updates in terms of this MOU with the Alberta government. Yesterday I was listening to my father-in-law, who used to fish on Great Slave Lake and the quality of fish that they used to have. It was a very interesting story in terms of how now, today, we have mega projects happening in Alberta that have an effect on fishermen in this area here. Has this government been doing monitoring checks in terms of the quality of the water in Great Slave Lake and the fish so that it could cause some significant changes in terms of the way of life of people who live around the lake here?

We work with the federal government, who has the authority and responsibility to deal with the monitoring of water and lakes and rivers. We have, as well, our own involvement through the Mackenzie River Basin Board where we are the signatory and we do some work as well. We see it as a joint effort, but clearly we encourage and we’d like to push the federal government to increase its monitoring as the rate of development increases.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired. I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the quality of water insurance states clearly in some of the land claim agreements and within the treaty rights, I believe, in terms of having the standard be kept to a level that has been enjoyed by the original people of the Northwest Territories. Certainly we want to continue with this. Is the Minister and his plans monitoring certain levels of water down the Mackenzie Valley so that we feel satisfied enough that we can still continue to drink water from the river and have our fish not be altered by any type of long-term effects of the Fort McMurray developments in the land?

We’re looking to continue to provide the monitoring. There’s a relationship with Public Works and Services, ENR, Health, MACA where we all have a role to play, especially when it comes to water for communities. The monitoring of the waterways in collaboration with the federal government is going to be a big issue. As we move forward on any developments, requirements are going to have to be built into the agreements and assessments to ensure that the in-depth monitoring is going to be there for all the

potential substances that may be going into the water as a result of the development.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would ask if the Minister would communicate the Water Strategy plan with the people in the Sahtu and also people in the Northwest Territories for them to realize the significant impacts that the developments in northern Alberta are going to have on our lifestyle. I’d like to know when the Minister can communicate this to all the people in the Northwest Territories on this important issue.

For the last year or so we have been developing the NWT Water Strategy: Northern Voices, Northern Water, and we have been and continue to consult extensively across the North in every region, including the Member’s. There have been conferences there. We’ve had our people in there consulting with communities. We’ve hired some very capable people. Former Premier Kakfwi has been working on this; a passion and interest of his. We have as well been using Francois Paulette, a former chief and another passionate individual when it comes to water, to consult across the North with this strategy and we’re going to continue to do that as we look at the final months of concluding this policy.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 8, written questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7 on orders of the day.

---Unanimous consent granted