Just a last question on this area. The work is going to be done you said in 2010, you’re hoping to have it done by 2011. Are you talking the beginning of 2011 or middle or end of the year? Can you give us a rough idea as to the time frame for the work to set these targets and set up this plan? Thank you.

It would be our hope at this juncture in early days of planning and scheduling that by spring 2011 that we would hopefully have a product on the table that would set the standard for the Northwest Territories when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Thank you to the Minister for that. I’d like to as well, when we reviewed the business plans there was a discussion about developing an NWT Climate Change Adaptation Plan and I don’t believe I saw any date in there. I think that that work was being undertaken in this current fiscal year. I’d like to ask the Minister if we are developing an NWT Climate Change Adaptation Plan and, if so, is it done or when might it be done.

In fact, there is an initial document that does exist. We have money in the budget identified to do further work to flesh it out in more detail and do some of the actual work. One of the areas I think we’re looking at working on in this area is the whole area of permafrost. There is work underway. There is a document already on the table that we took to a meeting I went to with the Premier at the Western Premiers’ Meetings. It’s going to be fleshed out and enhanced as we go on and do a lot of the work that we’ve laid out here in our business plan.

Thanks for that information. Just to follow up, I wasn’t quite sure what you were referencing as going to be happening in this next fiscal year. I note that there’s some money in grants and contributions for communities and regional governments. So you’re talking about fleshing out

the plan and expanding it. Is that work only going to be done by the GNWT or is there some money available for the communities to do some of this work as well?

At this juncture it’s the government pulling together all its work on its adaptation plan. At the same time we are doing a lot of work. For example, there’s money in the budget to do further work on permafrost, which is a direct area of study that’s going to require adaptation as changes in permafrost occur across the land. The government is going to finish pulling together its plan and at the same time we’re continuing specific areas of work as we look at actual adaptation to situations, circumstances, and realities on the ground.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I guess having asked about these two things individually I’d like to now ask the Minister how they relate to each other. Will these two projects operate or be developed in isolation of each other? I would hope not, but could he give me sort of a description, I guess, of how we’re going to set our greenhouse gas targets and also develop an NWT Climate Adaptation Plan and not do them together? Or will they be done together?

Of course the Greenhouse Gas Strategy is on the path to mitigation. It’s helping us be more responsible to cut our carbon footprint reliance on fossil fuels and help set up a system that if it’s done right could provide funding for the very many things we’re going to have to do related to adaptation to climate change as the land and waters and forests and ecosystems around us change. We’ve already spent millions on piles, we got shore erosion in some of our communities in the Beaufort-Delta and Aklavik areas. We have enormous amounts of money spent on repairing roads, even around this Legislature. The two are definitely linked. They’re looking at the same problem, different aspects.

Just one last question to do with the numbers on page 13-17. The climate change, in the program delivery details it lists climate change as $6.8 million give or take. In grants and contributions is some $5 million, which seemed to basically refer to climate change. I just wonder if the Minister could advise if that’s correct. Most of that $6.8 million for climate change, is it going to be... Sorry. Is the $5 million in grants and contributions identified under that climate change figure of $6.8 million?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Miltenberger. Sorry. Ms. Magrum.

Thank you, Ms. Magrum. Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next on my list I have Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a couple areas I’d like to follow up on. Maybe first I’ll follow up on a question raised by Mr. Yakeleya that I do support. It is about removing the old cars and derelict cars or vehicles, whatever the case may be, from the communities along certainly the Mackenzie where they’re accessible. I view it a little bit different in this particular case, but it’s the same problem. Is it possible that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources could foresee potential out there that they could organize something that could draw the cars down to, for example, Hay River? What I’m thinking is through the barge system on the backhauls that to help clean up some of these communities, does that possibility exist, that as an empty barge moves down the Mackenzie they could coordinate with community governments, bands, whatnot, about having them taken from their dump sites, dropped on the barge, and brought into, for example, Hay River. It’s a lot easier to coordinate getting a car crusher into Hay River than the logistics of shipping it up the river and coordinating it that way. Does the department see themselves in a position that perhaps they could play a role if someone was willing to help coordinate that?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I indicated to Mr. Yakeleya, should somebody come forward with a proposal, we’d of course look at that. But for the foreseeable future, we are fully engaged. As I indicated, we just instituted the bag levy, the milk. We’ve done some serious work and are going to do some more work on sorting out the cardboard and wastepaper. We’re looking at e-waste. As I’ve indicated to the Member, tied to the vehicles we have all the drums. The other big one is, of course, tires. It’s an issue of capacity and time. We’re working our way down that list. If somebody was to bring us a proposal that we could see made some sense and was affordable and we could somehow support, we would give it serious consideration.

I could swear that the Minister was reading off my list of questions because I wanted to go through that. He did mention tires and that’s another issue that I’ve raised a number of times, about getting a tire shredder organized and perhaps we could partner with the Yukon government whether we drive it up the Mackenzie Highway throughout the winter and drop it off in communities and leave it there in a centralized place over a couple-year period or, for example, as I mentioned earlier perhaps even barge these things down in a collective manner. I mean,

basically this becomes just a useless landfill if it sits in a community. These things could be recycled. The potential for the old cars to head to the smelting plants to provide old steel turned into new steel for new cars. That type of potential exists. I’m just curious.

As far as e-waste and paper, right now, as I understand it, we really don’t have a recycling program for paper that works very well, if there is one up and running. Most people think in the government that if you recycle paper you go to these little metal bins that are white and have a nice little shield on them, but actually all that does is it gets shredded and sent to the dump and then put in the compactor and goes in the ground. A lot of people believe that they get recycled, but it does not. I’m just curious how the government plans to propose to address things like paper and e-waste, if the Minister could clarify. My apologies if he has to repeat it, but I didn’t hear it earlier.

When it comes to wastepaper and cardboard we have identified some funds. We have gone out to communities and businesses, organizations, and we’re looking at opportunities either for recycling, true recycling, not just compacting and putting into a landfill, converting to biomass, converting to pellets. There’s a number of other options that are out there.

With e-waste, as we look at our own recycling, I know just from personal experience having taken some loads down, you can go down to Edmonton, Alberta. They have a very sophisticated e-waste recycling plant, I know, in Edmonton, and they will take all the computers and all your keyboards and all the other accoutrements of this technology and recycle it. So we have to look at is it better to have a shipping arrangement with Alberta or create our own. At this point, that final decision hasn’t been made, but we know we don’t intend to reinvent the wheel here. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I was glad to hear the Minister mention some barrel recovery. I’ve often said that we should put a bit of a head tax on those types of things such as if someone brings back these empty barrels that have been dumped all over the land. As an example, we give $50 per one that returns, and that’s only an example. I don’t know if that’s feasible or if that’s too low either. I don’t know. I’ve asked for this concept to be thought through, because I think this could provide an excellent opportunity to get some of these things in. You know, when people are coming home off the land, they can throw in one of these derelict barrels and all of a sudden it’s paying for some of their gas on the way home.

As far as waste oil in the communities and perhaps even batteries, does the department have any plans to address some of those? In the past I’ve

suggested, for example, that the government invest a bit of money into a waste oil burner to become the opportunity where people can drop these things off, and we could be heating a government garage of some sort or that type of thing. Because a lot of these waste oil burners can burn normal oil, in other words, clean oil, as well as the waste oil. So, as I understand it, I mean, you don’t have a lot of opportunities, whether you’re living in Tulita or you’re living in Fort Simpson or you’re living wherever, I mean, ultimately, when you change the oil in your vehicles, I mean, where are these things going? And they’re just going into some barrel or in some container and sits somewhere. I mean, it’s very unfeasible to have a program to go collect what would be seen as very few litres, but yet, the opportunity could be that we could pick it up through this process. Does the Minister have any insight on that?

The last point I have, because I suspect he’ll use all the remaining time on the clock, is as far as e-waste and paper and, perhaps, tires, is there any seed money in this particular budget and if there is, how much seed money is available for a contractor to come forward and present these ideas if they have a logistical proposal that could meet the needs such as cleaning these things up? You know, whether they’re batteries in the communities, whether they’re e-waste or tires, paper, et cetera. Thank you.

I’ve gone through the list of the things we’re working on as we work our way down. We do have some funds available and a program in place to get feedback on wastepaper and cardboard. We are doing some preliminary work on the e-waste. The area of tires, barrels, vehicles, waste oil are there for another day in that we’re stretched to capacity trying to do all the very many things plus all the things we’re already doing with the full recycling that we have on the go. Thank you.

Is there a dollar amount attached to any program here that could help start or seed an opportunity? Is there a particular budget line item that could reflect that opportunity if people were to come forward in the private industry and say they’d be willing to take on some of these challenges? Is the Minister able to highlight that? Thank you.

We have the Environment Fund that out of the money that we get from recycling and any profits goes in to fund itself to allow us to engage in other activities. That fund is fairly well subscribed to, but that’s where we took some of the money, for example, to do the work on the wastepaper and cardboard. Thank you.

Where does that fund sit at financially right now? Have proposals come out of this type of initiative and how much are we talking

about could be available for someone who wanted to present a proposal to start one of these types of projects? Thank you.

Ms. Magrum.