Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to welcome the Minister and the MACA team here again this evening. This question could be easily posed in the community services area later on in the department, but I’m asking it under the term directorate. It should be no surprise to the Minister, he’s heard me explain my concern here when we had the Department of Health and Social Services and this is the topic of our drinking water.
It is a fact that the drinking water quality base falls under the purview of MACA. MACA administers this website that controls the database for chemical testing and the bacteriological testing that should be occurring throughout the Northwest Territories on a monthly basis as per federal guidelines. Yet, Mr. Chair, when one continues to dial in and try to get updates, especially in the wake of the Obed spill that we had before Christmas, I’m still quite puzzled why a number of communities, especially those communities along the Mackenzie water basin area, places like Fort Smith, Hay River, all these place that are on the water, potential contamination zone, we are not seeing robust and rigorous testing as per our guidelines.
Can the Minister or designate shine some light on this as to what are the barriers for us not doing the reporting? If we are doing the reporting, what are the barriers for us not having it in the database? Thank you.