Mr. Chairman, apparently I said Ernie Daniels, I meant to say Ernie Campbell. Sorry.

It’s been a long day, Minister Miltenberger. That’s okay. Mr. Campbell. Committee, we are on page 13-18, Environment

and Natural Resources, activity summary, environment, grants and contributions, contributions, $3.199 million. Agreed?

Thank you. Page 13-19, Environment and Natural Resources, information item, environment, active positions. Any questions?

Thank you. Pages 13-20 and 13-21, Environment and Natural Resources, activity summary, forest management, operations expenditure summary, $32.067. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make just a few comments here. I think we’re still continuing to miss an opportunity in the forest management area and that’s the area of wild crafting and particularly mushroom harvesting. I don’t know where we’re at on that. I know there has been work to look into that, but it’s an industry that is proving to have some potential but it needs some management to really benefit the people of the Northwest Territories, otherwise the benefits go to people that come in from outside and take away the resources. So one question is what are we doing about that.

I’m wondering also, do we have the capacity to ensure that we have surplus forest yields for our biomass projects to meet the demand of our biomass projects and still maintain the integrity of the forest ecosystem. This is something that constituents are hopeful that we do have but want to be assured, and I know Boreal caribou have come up from time to time as sort of the major indicator as being the most sensitive indicator of how well our forests are doing. So maybe I’ll start with that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that answer I’ll go to Mr. Campbell.

Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s very good to know that work is proceeding in the area of the fungi, and I appreciate that and I appreciate the update.

In terms of the sustainable yield aspects, I think it’s well known how we do our harvesting of biomass can affect the structure of the forest and the ecology of the forest and what stage the forest is at; an earlier pioneering stage or a mature stage. Boreal caribou are known to have pretty sensitive habitat requirements. I’m wondering, are we looking into or are we ensuring, Boreal caribou being a threatened species in the Northwest Territories, are we looking into how we’re proposing biomass or guidelines to ensure that we’re not impacting the most sensitive of those sorts of indicators? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Mr. Campbell.

Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate those comments from the deputy minister. I hope that we will be public with that information because I know there are concerns in the public amongst both our Aboriginal governments and other people that aren’t just from reading the newspaper and opinion pieces and so on. It’s clear that people want to move in the area of sustainability and where we derive our energy, but they also want to know it’s being done properly and with all due care. So I appreciate that.

The last question I have here is the climate change and the Greenhouse Gas Strategy and so on. Both are obvious components of forest management considerations and I’m wondering, in the recent work that’s been done to review our forestry practices and so on, what are the considerations

being given to those aspects, both the Greenhouse Gas Strategy support and the climate change aspect. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that answer we’ll go to Mr. Campbell.

Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you for that, Mr. Chair. I know people used to rely on biomass for many of their energy needs. Biomass and good high-quality food, that was our energy sources way back. Today, obviously, when we’re proposing to use it to heat much larger facilities and so on, it’s a different scale of demand on our forests, so I appreciate that this work is being done and I appreciate the commitment to make sure that the word is getting back out to people who want to know that we’re on top of those sorts of questions. So I appreciate that and that’s all I had on this page. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll take that as a comment. Moving on with questions I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions here with regard to two things. Two questions, two things. The first one has to do with forest resource inventories and with the development of a potential wood pellet business in the South Slave. I know the department has done some work, I believe, on forest resources and doing inventories of our forest resources. I gather that it was done in the South Slave. But I believe there was also plans for the department to try and do forest resource inventories throughout the NWT.

Could I get an update on what percentage of the territory we’ve managed to do and what the plans are going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Campbell.

Mr. Campbell, we’ll go back to you for the completion of the last comment.