Thank you, Madam Chair. Once again I thank Mr. Dolynny for his comments on the water and the work that the department and the government have been doing, and his challenge to the government in terms of the regulation that’s needed. I know that there’s work underway between ENR, Health and Social Services, Public Works and Services, MACA, to ensure that we do all the things from the headwaters to the taps and beyond into the systems in people’s homes. It is going to be an issue of eventually moving from guidelines to regulations.
The issue of the relocation of the source water treatment plant from the Yellowknife River into the bay is going to be an issue that I’m going to leave for the Minister of MACA when the time comes. I’m not in a position to speak knowledgably about that.
The aviation fleet, the current contract expires in 2017. We’ve been on this now… This is the third year in terms of preparation, doing the research, bringing in consultants to review the service, give us a clear understanding of the options that are out there. We are now in the situation where the CL-215s that we do have are not going to be able to continue much longer. Simple things like access to avgas. The need to turbinize. If we keep them, turbinize the planes, if we were to stick with them, it would cost about $20 million or so a plane. So we are at work doing all the information gathering and assessments that we need to do to look at what options are there from the existing fleet being upgraded, buying new, leasing things like the air tractor, which is a smaller, more mobile, newer plane that is in use in a lot of other jurisdictions. We’ve had them up here doing some test runs last year. We’ve sent folks to observe them in action in other jurisdictions as well. Our intent is to move forward in a way that’s affordable. We now spend about $5 million a year just running and maintaining the CL-215s. There’s money that’s already in the budget to do that. We have to make the determination of the type of plane and the type of financing we need to do that.
In coming up, the other big issue that I would point out is: if we buy, we can’t afford to have our air force sitting in the snow bank eight months of the year. If we lease just by the year or X number of months a year it’s one thing. If we end up changing the arrangement, then we have to come up with a
way to have that significant investment working more than four months a year. There’s lots of work to be done over the next number of years. The hope is to have this whole process ready, either through some type of call for proposals or very much ready for calls for proposals so that the incoming Assembly has either a process that’s underway or that we, this Assembly, will have concluded. We are on this one and paying very close attention.
I appreciate the Member’s comment, as well, about the Wildlife Act. We are working hard to be as collaborative as possible, recognizing that we have, I believe, a very good piece of work in terms of the Wildlife Act. There’s no other piece of legislation that was either done the way this one was done or is drafted up the same way, recognizing the same number of complex issues that are not even recognized in the current wildlife ordinance.
Mr. Nadli, as well, referenced a number of concerns about the water, similar to some of the other comments. I won’t repeat them, other than to say we are committed to negotiating a strong transboundary agreement. We want to be able to make sure that we are, in fact, negotiating hard-to-protect waters and the quality, and that when we look at quality it is detailed enough that so that we are, in fact, as Mr. Yakeleya indicated, taking into consideration are we measuring for the right things.
This is a changed world. There are lots of very complex substances out there and authentic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, bitumen, persistent organic pollutants. Any number of things in the water and in the air that we have to make sure we account for.
I would point out, as well, that we are putting our full effort as a government on this. Premier McLeod was down with the western Premiers in Edmonton and had an opportunity to have some discussions with Premier Redford about transboundary negotiations. We are in the process, as the department, of setting up our meetings with the Minister in Alberta, as well, to further those discussions. This is, for us, a full court press, given the significance of this issue.
The biomass initiative, I agree, is a good one. It’s gathering momentum. The government initially had to play a very major role, but now we have, for example, a private individual putting his own money on the table, seriously advancing a proposal for a pellet mill in the Northwest Territories, a significant pellet mill that will be able to supply the market now and into the future. That was always the goal for ourselves as a Legislature: build the market, build the industry; step one, step two. We are committed to that.
The technologies, as well, in biomass are improving rapidly. There is almost job ready advancements in bio fractionation, for example, where they can
actually take biomass and convert it to diesel, convert it to avgas, convert it to any type of substance we need. There’s also a significant interest in work being done with natural gas, as well, being able to make the same alterations to the molecules to make it usable. So this is a rapidly advancing area.
The Wildlife Act, as I indicated, is a very important piece of work for us. It’s one of the reasons I ran for re-election, was to come back to see if we could get this approved in the House. I take Mr. Nadli’s comments about the many complex issues and the balance, and I would point out to him that anybody that reads that draft Wildlife Act and you look at the ordinance that is there that is currently governing us, it’s as close to night and day as you can come into pieces of legislation. The old legislation is archaic. It does not mention the word Aboriginal once, and there’s no mention of treaties, any obligation to Section 35, all those issues that have in some cases it predates. In addition to all the new ways of thinking of how we manage wildlife together, as he indicated.
We are interested in working with all the communities, especially in unsettled claims as we sort out the issues that the Member raised in terms of sport fishing and hunting. We’ve had a discussion in the House about the need to monitor fish stocks, especially during this time of the year when the fish are running and the folks come especially into the Member’s area to take advantage of the fish, to take as many as they can and…(inaudible)…them up and head back to Alberta. So we’re very committed to make sure we help manage that.
The Arctic Council, we are members on there, along with most other members of the circumpolar world. My understanding is Canada and the United States are going to be taking over the chairmanship, but we have a role at the table. I don’t have enough knowledge of the workings of the Arctic Council in terms of how they pick their chairmanship, but I can reassure the Member that we are fully engaged at that level. I know Premier Roland was there and Premier McLeod will be attending along with others, as appropriate, whenever there are meetings that take place.
Mr. Yakeleya indicated his concern about the budget. As I pointed out, this budget will be going up, assuming from all the trends that there are going to be fires and that we’re going to have to come back for supplementary appropriations. The money, as I pointed out to Mr. Bromley, that the money that was in last year’s budget included all the supps from firefighting that were one-time money, so those lapse. But every year we have been coming back so, unfortunately, I’m anticipating we’ll have to come back again this year.
I won’t review a bunch of the comments on water.
We are committed to working with Norman Wells in terms of their issue with their energy sources. We demonstrated that commitment and the level of that commitment in Inuvik. Not only this particular circumstance, but when we switched everybody off the old high-temperature system. We were there as well. The people of Norman Wells will not be abandoned. They will not be ignored as we work through with them their transition to another energy source.
The old vehicle recycling, I will tell the Member that just by sheer demand and limitation in terms of capacity, our focus, as our pointed out in my opening comments, is we’re looking at, in addition to all the things we’re currently doing, trying to get a grip on e-waste. The vehicle recycling is on the list but, once again, we’ve had to make choices and we’re of the opinion that there’s such a constant changing of electronic equipment and materials and it’s stockpiled all over and put into dumpsites, it’s the next pressure point in terms of the recycling.
The traditional knowledge, yes, we are committed. We are the lead department. We have it built into all the work we do working with co-management boards. We are the lead on the science research agenda. It’s a critical piece in there, as well, as we blend western science and traditional knowledge. As the Member knows, on the health side, for example, there are I think very interesting, proactive attempts with traditional knowledge. Education, as well, has a serious role to play with education and Dene Kede and all the other good work they’re doing with the curriculum.
As we proceed with the oil play for tight oil in the Sahtu and the issue of fracking and those types of things, there will be, clearly, a need for enhanced engagement and support in a whole number of areas, including the monitoring that the Member mentioned. Thank you.