Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We haven’t looked at any plan to encourage stores, especially grocery stores to do that. I do suspect that will be a natural next step as people start asking for that. I know, for example, in the store in Fort Smith, the owner there has taken it upon himself to buy a cardboard press and he bundles and ships all of his cardboard south. He makes a few dollars, but he saves $1,200 a month on tipping fees at the dump. I think if there is a demand from people that don’t want plastic bags, that would be looked at. We can make a note as we go forward to raise that issue with grocery retailers. Thank you.

Another thing I find curious is we talk about the success of our beverage container recycling and how people are turning them back in and it is a wonderful program. When it comes to the collecting of those empty beverage containers from outlying communities, it is true that we, as a government, pay somebody to drive there in a truck to pick them up and do not take full advantage of back hauls. When you talk about wasting gas and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions...Okay, let’s just say that we are bringing beverage containers back from Fort Smith to Hay River to the depot there. Would we be always looking to maximize the opportunities for backhauling in an empty truck for those containers or would we be giving somebody a separate contract to drive out there empty and bring those bottles back? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Bohnet.

Thank you, Mr. Bohnet. Mrs. Groenewegen.

I would suggest that almost every small community needs goods taken into the community. I would suggest that ENR coordinate very closely with the people who haul the goods in to put the bottles in the empty trucks coming out and not award contracts to drive into communities just to pick up empty bottles. That is just a comment.

Mr. Chairman, another thing I was wondering about was the issue of rubber tires and how much progress has the government made on implementing a deposit system and a refund system on tires, and what are we doing to recycle rubber tires that can be used in all kinds of ways? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Minister.

The issue of tires is one of the items on our list. We have things in order which we think is a priority and doable given capacity issues. The focus is the beverage container, the single use retail bags. We want to deal with the milk cartons. We have our plans underway for electronic waste. We are working with communities on how to deal with paper, and then we also recognize that tires are on a need to be dealt with but we haven’t got there yet. As well, we want to deal with the issue of batteries as well. Thank you.

Rubber tires have been on the agenda of the government for a very long time. They are something which fill up landfills. They are able to be caught on fire and spew out some pretty toxic fumes. I would suggest that tires should be a priority of this government. Like I said, it has been on the agenda for quite some time now. I think I have been talking about it for five years myself. It would be nice to make some progress on the rubber tires.

The e-trash, I know at the Hay River dump they are implementing a new fee very shortly for dropping off any appliances like refrigerators, because there must be some processing that needs to be done

with those to kind of decommission them at the dump. So there is a new fee coming in place for that. That is good to see.

The other one I just wanted to ask about is the whole activity in the communities under environmental protection. Maybe I am in the dark ages here or something but we have…First of all, let me ask you. How many environmental protection officers do we have in Hay River? Thank you.

Mr. Bohnet.

Thank you, Mr. Bohnet. Mrs. Groenewegen.

I find it ironic, I guess, that you take stuff to the dump and you burn the trash. I think they still burn garbage. Maybe they don’t burn garbage anymore. Maybe they just bury it all now. We have an environmental protection officer driving around the community all day sometimes looking for people that would be burning products like wood.

Okay, here is a better example. You can burn wood in your fireplace and the smoke goes up your chimney and out to the environment, but if you have wood pallets, there is a very huge kafuffle that takes place in the community when somebody wants to burn something seemingly as innocuous as wood pallets. I just wonder if this person has enough to do for a full-time position in Hay River. Thank you.

I understand that sometimes the pallets aren’t treated, the wood, but the nails that hold them together are treated and, therefore, are suspect for environmental contamination if somebody were to burn one. I guess what I am trying to say is that I’m all for environmental protection, but, as a government, I think we should make sure that our resources are expended in a way that really have an effect on the environment and aren’t nitpicking people and harassing people for nothing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I didn’t hear a question there. Next on my list, I have Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the big problems we are having in our communities is dealing with disposable waste. There is a no burn policy now that you are not allowed to burn the garbage at the garbage dumps. What we are finding in a lot of our communities is that they are now overflowing and basically having to move to different locations. There are a lot of vehicles, tires, old batteries, different wood products, old barrels and stuff at these garbage dumps. I think that, at some point, someone has to clean it up.

At one time, I thought the government was looking at a big mulcher that they were going to take to the different communities and drop it off and then go to another community. I know that it is something that they were talking about back in the 13th Assembly.

It was a program that they had in place, but then all of a sudden we haven’t heard anything of it. I am just wondering, what is the community doing to find ways to recycle old waste by way of products that can be recycled or even mulched to a point where you can put it on a barge and ship it south by way of different types of metals or, even Mrs. Groenewegen mentioned, tires and stuff like that? Those things you can leave in those different communities, but, again, they are an eye sore in most communities because you have nowhere else to put them.

I think the government has to have a plan in place of how do you dispose of a lot of this stuff than simply just hauling it out to the dump and leaving it there. What is the government doing? They used to have a program that they looked at sort of mulchers to deal with barrels and other things in communities. Why hasn’t that program been reinstated?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Miltenberger.

Mr. Chairman, this is, as the Member has pointed out, an area that has…There are a significant number of issues with that program that the Member is referring to. I understand there used to be a federal program. We are laying out here before this Legislature the steps we are trying to take to deal with recycling and the different types of waste, recognizing that we don’t have the capacity or the ability to deal with all the problems that are before us. We are looking at some of their newer models for crushing and shredding barrels, for example. I know down in the South Slave at different times they’ve brought in compactors to crunch up cars and haul them out of there. But we don’t have any equipment that we have that we could take to communities and circulate them through, but it is an area of technology that we are looking at.

As the Member indicated, every community has got their similar issue and we don’t want to have communities trying to buy their own. If we could get one that could be moved, that’s one of the challenges we are checking into. Thank you.

In two of my communities, Fort McPherson and Aklavik, they are looking at new landfill sites because their sites are filled to capacity. They can’t put anything else in there. I think that again under regulations, you talk about the whole new federal push to deal with grey water and have to train and everything else. What is the difference between having a garbage dump in the Delta, which seeps runoff and also when we have floods? All that stuff flows back into the water table. As a department, don’t you think you should take that more seriously with regard to what that effect has by way of the environment and the effect is has around a community, where we are having to go farther and farther from the community to find these landfill sites? Without gravel, especially in Aklavik, the only reasonable place to put a landfill site is probably up towards the mountains. What is his department doing to assist communities dealing with the landfill problem and also, as Mrs. Groenewegen mentioned, you are the ones enforcing the law but at the end of the day you have to allow for some options. When you want to enforce regulations or legislation, you have to ensure that you are showing there are alternatives or options that those communities can look at. What is your department doing to work with communities to assist them in dealing with the problem we have in our communities with waste?

We’re instituting all the programs we’ve been talking about. I also know there are requirements for landfills, that it’s not like it was in the old days where you could dump whatever you want whenever you want and burn whatever you want. The standards have increased significantly in terms of the requirement for burning, separation of materials, the hazardous goods, toxic substances. We recognize that we are a consumer society and we have a tremendous amount of waste, and that is one of the challenges. Because setting up a landfill, as the Member indicates, is a very expensive proposition and our goal, as a government, in ENR, is to set up enough recycling programs and to divert as much material away from waste sites as we can, recognizing that there is a lot of challenges facing communities.

We’ve had issues raised in other communities as well about how far away landfills are, the requirement for roads to get there, the cost to actually construct them properly. It is a very expensive undertaking. But as a government, we are working with communities to try to deal with those issues as well recognizing that, once again,

we have many more challenges than we have resources. Thank you.

Just with regard to the garbage bag issue, did the Minister receive any proposals from the Fort McPherson Canvas Shop regarding them providing canvas bags to the government? It is a government coronation. It is a northern company. I am wondering if you considered looking at northern preference when you were looking at putting out this tender. If anything, maybe we could do a better job than simply giving out bags. Maybe we could give out a packsack or a backpack and you can call it the Miltenberger Pack or something.

The 50-cent bag cost was one that was very tough to match in terms of affordability. Thank you.

I am serious. Have you considered other options than simply a bag such as a backpack or a packsack or a Miltenberger Pack?