Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to the Minister and delegation from ENR here this evening. I want to first say I strongly commend the Minister and the department for a lot of the background work over the years, especially in transboundary agreements and water. So much so that I’ve read a recent book called Ethical Water, which places the NWT in the forefront of the actions of this government. So I think it’s important to give praise when praise is due and I think that’s important.

That said, water is an important component of ENR and it does touch other departments, as well, retrospectively. Drinking water has been obviously a passion of mine since I’ve been a new Member here of the House. The fact remains that there’s still some inconclusives, so to speak, in terms of the quality of the drinking water. Even though I know the quality is really good, we need to quantify that empirically with actual data and we know that there’s been challenges to affixing to the guidelines that this territory has to adhere to. That’s my question, is that really if there’s opportunity that I see within this government, is taking ownership to the guidelines and not passing it to the community governments or to the municipalities for enforcement. There really is no enforcement, Madam Chair. Regulations need to be on the forefront of our thinking moving forward. So if I see opportunity with this department, it’s to make sure that we put a bit behind the bite, so to speak, when it comes to water quality, management and drinking water guidelines. So I challenge the Minister to have his team work with the other departments in bringing those drinking water standards to levels which I think could prove that we are in great shape.

On the subject of water again – again there’s a bit of an overlap with MACA – a grave concern a lot of people in Yellowknife have is the fact that we’re looking at a relocation of our source water from the Yellowknife River to the bay area. Again, as I said, there are overlapping issues with departments, but water is water. Unfortunately, very little opportunity for financing from the GNWT, albeit we have similar financing in other communities. So I think the residents of Yellowknife, residents of Range Lake would be fitting the bill, so to speak, in the long term as a result of territorial government’s non-involvement or non-committed involvement in the relocation of source water. Given the fact that this is a practice that we see in other communities where this government is full force using full federal tax money to do that, why Yellowknife is being left off the grid, that’s a question to be answered.

On the subject of forest management, my concern – and I think the concern is with a number of people – is obviously the age of our aviation fleet. We’ve heard various degrees in terms of the viability of this fleet moving forward. I’m referring to the CL-215s. These are the workhorse of our fire forestry management. The cost to replace this fleet is insurmountable, one that has to have some extreme planning put behind. I know the Minister is frugal in making sure we are putting money away for a rainy day, $74 million in his budget, and I applaud him for doing so, but some of these costs are going to come to haunt us very soon. It would be nice to hear from the Minister or the department what the strategy is for replacement of the CL-215s. We need to hear it now during the early life of this Assembly so we can have plans of action.

Finally, it’s refreshing to know that the Wildlife Act is coming back on stream for review. We’re hoping, and I know a lot of the Regular Members were hoping, that the consultation process, the collaborative process with the public is one on which we can get those views back on the table. I believe a lot was learned in the last 10 years. A lot was learned specially in the dying days of the 16

th Assembly. We applaud you and your team to get the right information out to the people so that we aren’t divisive on this subject, where we can live in harmony with tradition and harvesting, and we can make sure that there is a caribou industry and that we protect that industry moving forward, understanding the real impacts.

Madam Chair, I will leave it at that. More, again, good news on the forefront. That said, some opportunities that we do not see in this budget and it would be nice to hear some address to those concerns. Madam Chair.