Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to maybe ask some questions or respond a little bit to the opening remarks of the Minister. This department has reduced its budget. I am concerned about that. As the Minister knows, and I see he’s referred to it as a 2.6 or $1.8 million reduction. The actual reduction from dollars spent last year was about a $9 million reduction or about 12 or 15 percent. I guess my first question to the Minister would be: Were those additional costs, the ephemeral costs that we don’t expect and what were they?
The Minister is continuing to develop the water programs and at increasing cost. I think this is a state-of-the-art water program in all the jurisdictions across Canada, and the Minister deserves kudos for this work. My one concern is that it seems to be at the cost of things like climate change. I’m sure the Minister knows that there’s probably no single bigger threat to our water qualities and quantities and ecological services, all the values that water has, than climate change itself, and given the science, we are not doing our part.
I’ve heard the Minister claim that it’s not going to happen at the federal level. Climate change, mitigation needs to be done at the subnational level, and so we’re not saying we’re inactive or inert on this issue, but I am saying that we need to review these priorities.
I’m happy to see the solar energy strategy being devised. It’s a long overdue one. The solar costs are declining at a rate of 4 percent per annum, and the technical capabilities are increasing. Along with that, I hope the Minister will take into consideration things like the standby charges and so on that the NWT Power Corporation, under his jurisdiction, has. The policies that they have that, in fact, go
against the development of renewable energy and solar, in particular.
I’m happy to see a new Wildlife Act coming forward. We had expected it in the winter but maybe the Minister is going to bring it forward earlier as per his comments here. My question there would be when it does come forward, what funding has been identified to stakeholders who require some support as interveners or commenters to be able to comprehensively review this massive legal document.
I guess the last one I have, caribou obviously remain a priority of all residents of the Northwest Territories, or most residents. In many cases we’re talking about our food, we’re talking about some economic values and we’re certainly talking about ecological values.
So I appreciate the work the department does on caribou and perhaps I could just get confirmation on what the substantive herds are that the Minister refers to as major herds that will be surveyed in 2012. I’m sure it includes the Bathurst herd. I wonder if it includes the Ahiak or the Beverly and the western herds, Bluenose herds.
We have gone through quite a dry spell. In a significant part of the Northwest Territories there are warnings out this is a bug bear that the department has to face every year. It can be costly and unpredictable. So I’m wondering if the Minister has any crystal ball on what might be happening with, of course, fire season and how he intends to handle that unpredictability in a fiscal sense. Thank you, Madam Chair.