Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask questions about the recent report of the Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development on Financial Insurances for Environmental Concerns. The commissioner reviewed Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Development Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, and others, and reviewed their protection of public finances. Unfortunately, they found major shortcomings. Costs have now accelerated to over $8 billion of public liability. That’s taxpayer dollars.
The number one factor was intra-northern resource development projects. We’re standing to inherit this
very soon. The NWT alone likely has almost a billion dollars in liabilities right now that the federal government is working on.
Given the modest, I think it’s about $64 million for operations that have been negotiated for a land and environmental management regime, the clear shortcomings of the federal government as identified by the commissioner, and the likely unaffordability of the GNWT in light of such costs – I mean, those are 10 times what we expect to have for operations, 10 to 15 years’ worth of the net fiscal benefit we’re expecting – how is this being addressed in devolution negotiations?