Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the comments from the Member. In regard to the reduced budget, part of the money that’s in the budget from last year that is not there this year yet is about $6 million that we got through special warrant and through the House to fight fires. So chances are, given the issue of the base budget, and the fact that things are drying out rapidly, and the relative humidity is dropping, and we’ve already had some fire starting, we will be back requesting further funding to fight fires as they do arise. So the $9 million, as the Member said, it is actually what we were cut. Six million dollars of that is tied to fire suppression and then there were some energy sunsets in there.
I appreciate his comments on the water work. The two main focuses for those areas are, of course, the transboundary negotiations and setting up the community-based water monitoring systems which are critical to the implementation of the Water Strategy, and the assurance and the knowledge it’s going to give us to make the right decisions as it pertains to water, resource development impacts
that are happening in the region and the territory. At the same time, a lot of the work that we are doing right from waste management to biomass, geothermal, solar, as a government with building standards, all those things are geared to try to improve our energy use, minimize our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate as well as adapt. Once again, we’ve had this discussion in the House today. Could we do more if there were more resources? Without a doubt, Madam Chair.
The NTPC charges, we are looking at things. Just in my constituency, for example, there was a big debate about these demand charges. There was a big concern about interruptible power versus committed fees for power, especially if we’re going to encourage people to use electric, and those are things that we control and we just have to make sure we’re going to make the right decisions. But I appreciate the Member’s comments and I understand the concern there and I’ve heard it everywhere I’ve been, in regard to NTPC.
The Wildlife Act, as I indicated in my comments, we have half a million in the budget to move that piece of legislation forward, both in terms of doing the work, consultation, including funding the SWAAG group, the advisory group, the training and those types of things. I don’t have a specific breakdown in terms of how that money has been allocated so far, but that $500,000 is the global figure that’s there to do that.
The caribou herds we’re looking at are the Cape Bathurst, Bluenose-West, Bluenose-East, the Bathurst and the Ahiak. There was work done last year and we’re still pulling those numbers together. So when all those numbers are in this fall, we’ll be having a gathering around the table to see what the numbers and information tell us, and collectively we’ll be looking at the next steps.
In terms of forest fires, I’ll ask the deputy minister to give you a bit more of a background. I can tell you it’s hot and dry and no rain in sight and things are drying out fast, but I’ll ask the deputy, Madam Chair, with your indulgence, to just provide a bit more of an update. Thank you.