Moving on to page 13-15, information item, corporate management, active positions. Mr. Krutko.

Same question in regards to the affirmative action numbers by way of P1s, P2s, P3s and anyone who is in the department with a disability.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Minister Miltenberger.

Rather than read the list, I will just commit to provide the list to committee that lays it out in detail.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Are we on page…

We are currently on page 13-15. Thank you. I see no further comments on page 13-15, information item, corporate management, active positions.

We are moving on to page 13-17, activity summary, environment, operations expenditure summary, $9.174 million. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the Minister’s response to general comments, he talked about Giant Mine. I know that the federal government is moving forward with some remediation of that Giant Mine site which involves freezing in a significant amount of arsenic underground and using not just a freezing process but thermal siphons as part of the solution. If you go outside here and look at our lovely road, thermal siphons don’t work or don’t appear to work. I am a little concerned, honestly, about the method by which the federal government plans to contain the arsenic, given their method and obviously global warming. I am curious if the Minister can tell me what money, if any, are we investing to offer alternate solutions to the federal government. Are we doing anything to encourage them to do a more thorough and permanent cleaning as opposed to freezing this deadly toxin underground so that your children and grandchildren can deal with it later? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Minister Miltenberger.

The best minds of the day have agreed to that particular solution. We have already booked the money a number of years ago to deal more with the surface

effects. The plan has been to get through all the steps necessary to actually implement this freezing in place concept and that is currently what is underway. There has been no move to go back to the drawing board and revisit what has been already agreed to and budgeted for. Thank you.

Fair enough. I am not convinced yet that the freezing in is the best method. I continue to have concerns. I would love it if this government could work with the federal government to come up with a more permanent plan that doesn’t have to be cleaned up by our children or grandchildren. I will leave that alone now.

I want to talk a bit more about the plastic bags and the levies that we are going to place on single use bags. I think it is a good idea. I am very happy about it. I did ask the Minister some questions by e-mail and he provided me with a number of responses. I just, for the record, want to get clarity that this is for all stores. It is not just grocery stores. We are talking in Yellowknife the Canadian Tire, Shoppers Drug Mart, Wal-Mart, Co-op. All of these stores are going to have to charge a levy for the single use bags. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is applied to the retail outlets that sell single use bags. We have pulled together a very rudimentary sample that I have taped to the door of my office, that people could look at as they go by, were the ones that cost 25 cents. The smaller ones, the produce bags and those types of things, prescription bags that will be exempt are there as well. Yes, Mr. Chairman, it is retail outlets. Thank you.

Thank you for that information. I have seen the display. It is pretty clear.

My last question has to do with the milk levy or the milk deposit that we are talking about. I have received the response from the Minister, which basically suggests it is going to be $20 a year in the way of the portion of the deposit that you don’t get back, which doesn’t sound significant but we do continually talk about the cost of milk and other fresh vegetables as an example. Anything that we are doing to increase the cost of milk, I think we have to think about it hard before we make a final decision on that. I am not saying that the deposit on milk is wrong, considering that you are going to get half back, but I just want to make sure that we are content with the fact that we are going to be increasing the cost of milk in the communities.

I would like to just throw out there a possible alternative. Sugar drinks aren’t necessarily good for you. All the pops and the juices that are really high in sugar are bad. They seem to be very popular and

people continue to buy them. Has there been any thought about maybe increasing the deposit on that and eliminating a deposit on milk but still providing the incentive to recycle the milk? Maybe go with a 10 cent deposit on milk which is fully refundable, but cover the difference that we need to raise to make this doable financially by increasing the deposit on some of the sugar drinks, which would really be great if we encourage people not to drink it. Has the Minister considered options like that? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We are looking at those types of options, as I indicated earlier. Before we proceed with implementation, we will be coming back, both with the bags and the milk, with what our best thinking is and how to do this. We recognize the concern about milk.

One of the other options we haven’t fully costed, of course, is with the retail bag levy at 25 cents. If we assume that at least for the first year or two we are still going to be using nine million bags that we are going to get a levy on, my rudimentary math tells me that is over a couple of million dollars that possibly there may be an offset that could be dealt with that way. We will come back with options to try to make this so that we address the need without creating another pressure. Thank you.

I would like to thank the Minister for that. I think it is a great initiative. I am happy you guys are out doing that. I am looking forward to seeing what you bring back. You did talk also about these recyclable bags that you are going to distribute. Do we intend to give one of those to every resident in the Northwest Territories? If so, how? If I can have a rough idea of what that one time cost might be, that would be great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I will call on Mr. Bohnet.

Thank you, Mr. Bohnet. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you. I look forward to carrying one of those bags to the grocery store next time I go or shortly thereafter or after they are distributed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I didn’t hear a question there. We are moving on. Next on my list is Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The levy on bags is very interesting. I was wondering if the department had considered that when you go to the grocery store and you want to put your groceries in a cardboard box, something that the grocery stores usually have a lot of but they tell you that they just crushed them all just before you got there. Is there anything you can do to ask stores that receive things in boxes not to ruin boxes? Boxes are good. They are recyclable in their present form, not just in bundles that they shipped off someplace for recycling. A lot of people that pick up groceries are putting them in their vehicles and packing them, taking them on airplanes and things like that. It seems a little bit ironic that we consume the energy to destroy perfectly good cardboard boxes, which are actually a much better way of carrying groceries than in a plastic bag that flops all over the place. Is there any consideration on the reuse of cardboard boxes?