Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we do have a lot in front of us. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 22-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2014-2015. We’d like to start with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, then Public Works and Services, then the Executive, and then the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Is committee agreed?

Thank you. We will commence with that after a brief break.

---SHORT RECESS

I will call Committee of the Whole to order. We are reviewing Tabled Document 22-17(5). Next on our list is Environment and Natural Resources. Committee agreed?

Minister Miltenberger, do you have any opening comments?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The 2014-2015 Main Estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources propose total operational expenses of $87.5 million for the upcoming year. This represents a 22 percent or a $16 million increase from last year’s budget primarily for increased program and services due to devolution.

The mandate of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is to promote and support the sustainable use and development of our natural resources and to protect, conserve and enhance the environment for the social and economic benefit of all residents.

This mandate will be further strengthened as of April 1, 2014, when the department assumes responsibility for the management of onshore water resources.

During the 2014-15 fiscal year, activities within the department will increase to meet our enhanced role in the broader regulatory environment, particularly in the areas of water, conservation, environmental monitoring and stewardship.

A major expense is the creation of two new divisions for the department with $10.7 million allocated for the water resources division and $8.4 million for conservation, assessment and monitoring.

The water resources division will ensure the water resources stewardship and management objectives of our government are met in an integrated and timely manner.

Division staff will be responsible for providing technical advice to Northwest Territories boards that issue water licences; coordinating the process for ministerial approval of both Type A and B water licences; ensuring knowledge to make water resource management decisions and develop water resources programs is current and relevant to the Northwest Territories; and continuing the effective implementation of the Water Stewardship Strategy guided by the principles of ecosystem-based management within watersheds and the use of the

best available scientific, local and traditional knowledge.

The Taiga Environmental Lab, which offers services to public and private enterprises throughout the North to help support environmental decision-making, will be managed by the water resources division.

The new conservation, assessment and monitoring division will ensure the environment is seriously considered in regional land use planning and the review of proposed development in the NWT.

Division staff will lead the development of a territorial ecological representative network; oversee departmental participation in environmental impact assessment and regulatory processes as well as regional land use planning.

The department also assumes responsibility for the NWT Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program to ensure legal and land claim requirements of cumulative impact monitoring is undertaken in the NWT on April 1st . The program administers $3.4

million to coordinate, support and conduct monitoring-related initiatives in the NWT communities, which incorporate both scientific and traditional knowledge.

Besides the positions transferring from the federal government, four new positions are being proposed for the department. Two positions will be going to the Sahtu to help deal with the workload from increased oil and gas exploration activity. The other two positions will be assisting in negotiations of transboundary water agreements with Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

We will continue to work collaboratively with Aboriginal governments, communities and the public to protect our environment and ensure the wise and sustainable use of our resources.

For example, the department will work with Aboriginal governments, communities and stakeholders to implement the new Wildlife Act and NWT Water Stewardship Strategy Action Plan; negotiate and implement bilateral transboundary water agreements with Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan; provide support for wildlife co-management regimes, regional land use planning and sustainable forest management; and advance efforts to deal with climate change adaptation and mitigation.

We will also continue to build partnerships with other parties involved in land and water management decisions, including Aboriginal governments, regulatory and resource management authorities and other government departments. These partnerships will support further integration, collaboration and sharing of data and information needed to assess and make quality land and water use decisions.

I will touch briefly on some of the other major activities planned for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

The department and the Canadian Water Network are working in partnership to develop a practical community-based cumulative effects monitoring framework, with participation from the Slave River Delta Partnership and researchers from the University of Saskatchewan.

We will also continue to work with communities and other departments on community source water protection planning and community-based monitoring to ensure our communities have clean drinking water.

Caribou remain an important issue for residents and implementation of the Barren Ground Caribou Management Strategy is a priority for the department.

During the next fiscal year, we will be working with our partners on management plans, monitoring the recovery of the herds and improving harvest reporting.

Work has started with co-management partners, industry and stakeholders to develop a range management plan for the Bathurst caribou. This work will continue through 2014-15.

Funding of $425,000 will be used to increase monitoring of Boreal caribou to comply with the National Recovery Strategy for Woodland Caribou and to develop a range plan for the NWT population.

ENR’s role in strengthening and diversifying our economy is to promote and support sustainable development in the Northwest Territories.

Our role in this process, as of April 1st , is to

coordinate departmental participation in the environmental assessment process, provide advice on measures to be taken to protect or mitigate impacts on the environment and ensure the measures have been taken.

We are also responsible for assessing, monitoring and mitigating impacts of development on our forests, waters, wildlife and wildlife habitat, which requires good and accurate baseline data.

This is particularly important in the Sahtu region where more than $650,000 will be used to deal with the increased oil and gas exploration activity and to coordinate regional environmental monitoring and research on surface water, groundwater, wildlife and wildlife habitat in the area.

The development of sustainable forest economies provides opportunities to build capacity and local employment in many of our communities. ENR is helping communities realize forest industry opportunities through local forest management agreements.

We plan to have forest management agreements in place with Fort Resolution and Fort Providence by the end of this fiscal year. Implementation of these agreements includes timber harvest and business planning.

Increased funding of almost $2 million, provided through the Energy Action Plan, will be used to support and promote the use of alternative energy sources, such as biomass, solar and wind, to help reduce energy costs and greenhouse emissions in our communities.

ENR, with the addition of experienced staff transferring to the Department from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, will continue to pursue an aggressive agenda to ensure the sustainable use of our natural resources and protection of our environment.

We will remain diligent in our efforts to work collaboratively with Aboriginal governments, management partners and all Northerners to protect our environment and ensure the wise and sustainable use of our resources. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Do you have witnesses to bring into the House?

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Committee agreed?

Sergeant-at-Arms, I’ll ask you to escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Mr. Miltenberger, I’ll ask you to introduce your witnesses please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have Mr. Ernie Campbell, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources; and Ms. Nancy Magrum, director of finance and admin services. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome, witnesses. I will now open the floor to general comments on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask a few quick questions here. I appreciated the Minister’s opening remarks, although at lightning speed. I read every third or fourth paragraph as he was whipping along.

The first one was I wasn’t clear what role the Minister has in decision-making in the various environmental review processes for land, water and resources. I see where he says the department plays a role, but where does the Minister enter into the decisions?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The term "responsible Minister" has a number of definitions to it. In some cases the Minister themselves will be directly responsible in terms of signing documents off or being involved in the process, in other cases, depending on what the project is, the responsible Minister authorities are delegated down into the organization where the technical people and other trained individuals carry out those functions. So we will continue to play the role that we’ve had in the past, but it will be elevated from what has been described as an ancillary role to now a leadership role along with the Minister of ITI and the Minister of Lands as we look at this development assessment process, the one window approach, and once again, depending on what project comes through the door, we will define what role we specifically play. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister. For example, type A and B water licences coordinating the process for Ministerial approval. What exactly does that mean and what role does this Minister play?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Campbell.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I understand when the Minister references Northwest Territories boards, he’s referring to the federal boards. I know our Premier says we don’t have anything to do with federal boards, so I shouldn’t be talking like that, but in this case obviously we are the final decision-maker for recommendations from the water boards, such as the Mackenzie Land and Water Board. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks to the Minister. When the Minister says the new conservation assessment and monitoring division will ensure the environment

is seriously considered and regional land use planning and the review of proposed developments, that’s sort of sounding like Alberta. They seriously consider things and typically reject the environmental concerns. As the Minister knows, they’ll let other jurisdictions look after Boreal caribou and the Jack Pine Mine and so on; these are all acceptable in the interests of economic development.

I just would like to have the Minister define what he means by seriously consider, the environment will be seriously considered in these exercises. Thank you.

Thank you. One of the key intents for the Government of the Northwest Territories deciding to become its own regulator is that we’d have a unique political environment and if we look at some critical framing pieces that have been referred to in this House by the Premier and other Ministers, the Land Use and Sustainability Framework, the work we’ve laid out in the Wildlife Act, the Water Stewardship Strategy, the approach that we are taking with the Employment Strategy and the Mineral Strategy all within the broad framing document and the principles, particularly the Land Use Sustainability Framework, make it very clear that we are deadly serious about our concern about the environment, the balance between development and protection of the environment and doing the things necessary to achieve that balance and have that guide us as some fundamental founding principles on how we intend to do business. We have been doing business and we want to continue to do business, but with more of a leadership role after April 1st .

Thank you.

Thank you. We’re getting there. I appreciate the Minister’s comments. I would say the world has balanced itself into a box, a boxed canyon if you will, and I guess I’d ask if the Minister would agree with that on many issues. So, it’s all in that expression of balancing. We have balanced ourselves to death in many cases and we know that we’re losing species at an untold rate and so on.

The Minister notes that we’re responsible for assessing, monitoring, mitigating impacts of development on our forests, water, as well as wildlife habitat, but he doesn’t mention the climate and that’s probably the most significant event that’s affecting our people. So I’d appreciate any perspectives from the Minister that would assure me that in fact the balance will be tipped in favour of preserving our ecosystems that support life rather than to support industrial activity at the cost of life.

Thank you. If we were to take out the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and go through the first few pages where we lay out the intent and

principles that are guiding us on the importance of the balance that the Member talks about, if we look at the exhausting amount of work we’ve done on the Water Stewardship Strategy we continue to do in terms of its implementation and how its guided us with our transboundary negotiations with the southern jurisdictions. If we look at the exhaustive amount of work we’ve done to develop a process to, in fact, get the Wildlife Act written and completed and the content of the Wildlife Act, I think the Member should draw some considerable comfort from those pieces of work, that legislation, those fundamental strategies that have reflected the intent and direction and drive of this Assembly and all the five Assemblies that I’ve been here and I would suggest all of the Assemblies before that. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s comments and his commitments and dedication here. I think he has done a lot of good work. It’s just that I see this government, of course, pursuing oil and gas as fast as we can and as much as we can, subsidizing it and so on.

What’s the Minister’s role in ensuring that the development of oil and gas stays within what we know are sustainable limits?

Thank you. There are two key issues that we as a Legislature, we as a territory have to come to grips with after April 1st in particular, and those are, and I’ve said

this a number of times already, those are two key issues of pace and intensity tied to cumulative impact and we have to make sure, as we move forward, that we do it in a very careful, thoughtful way that keeps those types of concerns in mind tied into the cumulative impact and the sustainability issues, and looking not only for today but down the road as far as we can see so that those that come after us, our descendants, are going to be well served by the decisions we make today. There are some things that are not finalized, and I would suggest that the issue of pace and intensity of development are two things, as we look at life after April 1st , that are going to require our discussion

and attention.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. General comments. Mr. Yakeleya.

Just a quick comment here, Mr. Chair. The issue I have with this department would be the responsibility in regard to our water management and the role that the government is going to assume after April 1st . But even as we

speak, Imperial Oil has applied to renew its water licence in the Norman Wells operation. It will be a 10-year licence.

I want to ask what type of role the government is going to play in the process of Imperial Oil seeking the renewal of their water licence from the Mackenzie River that has been done in the past.

Their 10-year licence expired so they are seeking another 10-year water licence. The water will be, of course, taken from the Mackenzie River. Doing the calculations, roughly estimating that they’re going to, over the 10-year period, request about three billion litres of water from the Mackenzie for a 10-year period for their operation. Once it goes through the water treatment processing plant in Norman Wells, they are going to be putting 1.5 billion litres of water back into the Mackenzie.

I want to ask this department, through its Water Management Strategy, for the quality of the water that’s going back into the Mackenzie River, is there any thought of working with the community of Fort Good Hope to look at a water monitoring station close to the community, because their drinking water comes out of the Mackenzie. I know this is going through the process now in the Sahtu and for the community to be concerned of the quality of their water and it not only stops in Fort Good Hope, it goes down to Tsiigehtchic and down to the Beaufort Sea.

Is there any type of insurance or some type of plan in place that the community could look at a water monitoring station? They have been asking for some time in light of Imperial Oil putting back 1.5 billion litres of water.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to the specific question of community water monitoring, there are sites that have been established. There is one near Good Hope. We also installed sites above and below Norman Wells, as well, with all the equipment that we use to do the monitoring to detect and be able to check water quality and what specific substances may be in there and at what level. That is there and we’re committed to building that network all the way down to the Arctic Ocean, to the Beaufort, to make sure that all the communities have that same level of comfort about the quality of their water as it flows north.

In regard to the broader question and concern about water licences and what’s our role, we will have roles in water licences. We are now moving into a quasi-judicial role where, as responsible Ministers, we have to be very careful about what we say about specific projects, where we say it, how we say it, to whom we say it to, to ensure that we protect the integrity of the process, that we do not create any apprehension or reasonable apprehension of bias, and we have moved from that ancillary role to a leadership role, and with that comes that responsibility to always be very conscious about how we comment on specifically individual projects as they are brought up, given the fact that we have that regulatory function, in my case, with water. The Minister of Lands will have

their authorities, as will the Minister of ITI, so we will ensure the integrity of the process and we will play the roles in the North that were formally played by federal Ministers.

When you have a company such as Imperial Oil renewing its water licence for the next 10 years and stated in their submission that they are going to be taking out close to three billion litres of water over the 10-year period and putting back 1.5 billion litres after it’s been recycled through its plant, this states specifically to the chapter in our land claim agreement where our water will not be altered, the quality of water will not be altered, so the baseline study, I guess, is asking and I appreciate the Minister citing that there is the water monitoring, field testing or it’s actually a location where they test on a regular period, they test for certain chemicals and they test for a certain shift in the quality of the water. That’s what I’m getting to. That’s what we negotiated in the Sahtu land claim, the altering of the quality of the water in the Mackenzie River. That’s what I’m getting to, and just to give some assurance to the people in Fort Good Hope who pull the water out of the Mackenzie River to use it for drinking. I wanted to just state that for the Minister.

The other question I have is right now in the Sahtu there is a CanNor project along with the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board. They’re going into communities to look at the traditional environmental lifestyle and balancing that with the skill development with the industry. The report hasn’t been written up yet, but I’ve been hearing that some of the elders are being in these meetings and in these workshops, and I talked earlier to the Minister about having a gathering of traditional knowledge keepers of the environment into the region, and extracting some of that knowledge in the form of almost like an elders’ summit on traditional knowledge. Not everything can be pulled out of the books. You need the elders there with their first language and the history of the areas that they are using in the Northwest Territories.

One of the concerns, and again, I’m going to speak just on the comment that was made to me over the weekend, the elders are quite concerned of the water being extracted from the fish lakes, and that’s the concern that has been noted there. I guess I want to ask the Minister just on the baseline studies on the lakes that are now being used by the oil companies to use for their operations. Is there, right now, some baseline studies being done on the fish lakes in the area?

There is baseline work being done, as I discussed with the Member during question period. I’d have to check and get back to the Member whether it includes specifically fish lakes, but I’ll commit to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on my list I have Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments for the Minister and the department. First off, on last year’s spending on forestry, a lot of people in my riding would like to see the forestry crews replaced with communities. I know in last season, I believe it was more than $10 million in spending. A lot of that money could be spent within our territory. I know a lot of it went south. That’s one thing we need to work on is creating more employment in the communities and stop a lot of these major fires before they get out of hand.

The other thing I wanted to comment on – and this was mentioned earlier today – was the Lands department. I look at the facility in Inuvik and there are a few positions that are going to be in Inuvik. It’s pretty clear that there needs to be another main facility there. The facility right now at Shell Lake is almost older than Inuvik right now, pretty close. I think it’s time to replace that building. I am not sure what the department’s plans are for the near future. There was a major concern earlier this year that when we do take over departments that we have the proper facilities for them. Right now, those are the only concerns that I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have 29 fire crews, combination of contract and our own crews across the North, understandably all in the boreal forest area. So we do have a significant commitment in employing local folks in the regions and communities to fight fires. Oftentimes, if there’s a big fire season like there was last year in the Deh Cho, we import all the folks we can find from other regions. In some cases we even have to import them from outside the territory if we are really pressed, as we were last summer where there was a flare-up, as well, in the South Slave. We were hard at it with all our crews. It varies.

The issue of Shell Lake, I’m assuming it might even be older than Moose Kerr School.

---Laughter

We do have it on the capital plan in a couple of phases. The critical first step is going to be the warehouse space and then the lab has to be rebuilt so that it meets the new standards as safe and meets all those tests. Subsequent to that would be the replacement of the actual office space itself. Thank you.

For a minute there, I thought they were going to replace both those buildings.

Just on another note, it has to do with forestry as well. Two of the communities, Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic, are looking to do some preparation

around the communities in the way of firebreaks. Both communities are in line with the forest and we need to ensure there’s some kind of break in case of a major forest fire.

Would the Minister be willing to work with the communities to ensure that happens? Thank you.

We have an ongoing commitment to work with all the communities in terms of making sure their FireSmart Program is put into effect. In communities, for example, in the early parts of the fire season if fire crews are not busy, they can work on that and they have done that in many communities, help with firebreaks. We have staff that can assist with the design. So, yes, we are prepared to work with communities to see how we can advance those critical initiatives.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Does committee agree we’re completed general comments?

Page 13-7, department summary, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, operations expenditure summary, $87.528 million. We will return to this once we’ve gone through the pages.

Page 13-8, information item, infrastructure summary. Questions?

Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the department give a breakdown of the large capital projects for $3.026 million, please?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Magrum.

Thank you, Ms. Magrum. Mr. Dolynny, I’ll ask you to ask that question again, please.

No problem, Mr. Chair. Page 13-8, infrastructure investment, large capital projects, $3.026 million. The breakdown, please.

Ms. Magrum, right towards the bottom. Ms. Magrum.

I appreciate the breakdown. If I caught some of the information correctly, some of them were studies or plans. Are those subject to capital asset depreciation? Thank you.

You learn something every day here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. We are on page 13-8, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Questions?

Page 3-9, information item, revenue summary. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to follow up on my colleague Mr. Yakeleya’s questions. I see our water use fee is $80,000. That’s incredibly low, given the use of this public resource. As Mr. Yakeleya said, 10 billion litres of water at Norman Wells by Imperial Esso. We know, in fact, that that will be put to shame, in terms of the amount, very quickly by the activity with fracking, which is a very, very intensive water use.

Letting industry use these resources at this rate is an incredible subsidy. It’s an environmental subsidy, but it’s much costlier than some; for example, $15 million in the development strategy is pale compared to this subsidy. It’s more along the lines of the hundreds of millions that we are subsidizing with infrastructure.

The big concern here is that in many cases this is permanent loss with fracking. The water is permanently removed from the ecosystem and stored underground forever or returned in a polluted state to the ecosystem. We know that the North has very limited renewable water.

Will we expect to see some recognition of this, now that we have some authority here, in the water use fees? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ve been operating from the premise of we will do devolution and then we will evolve from that point. There are a number of areas across the whole spectrum tied in devolution where we’re going to be looking very carefully. We’ve said the same thing about royalties and taxation, that we’re going to be very careful and measured in anywhere, like the issue the Member raises, are going to be getting attention and we’re going to look at how we do business and are we the right size and how do we carefully change things if we do decide to change things, so I would say yes, we’re going to be looking after, as we evolve, those things will be looked at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister. Just on the timber permits and licences, I know we’ve signed a recent forest management agreement and the Minister has mentioned that stumpage fees will be modest. With this activity, will there be any likely revenue in this area in the foreseeable future? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Deputy Minister Campbell.

Thank you, deputy minister. Next on my list I have Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple questions on this page here. When it comes to the hunting and fishing licences, we know that there is the Wildlife Act and regulations are pursuant, as well as devolution implementation, as the Minister reminds us here, so how are these two new things that we’re going to be involved with, how does that change how we set hunting and fishing licences and suspected revenues for this fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It won’t change what revenues we have projected. We control hunting licences and the federal government controls fishing licences, and there has been no change in fishing licences of any substantive nature for many, many years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dolynny.

Mr. Chair, under the Environment Fund net revenue of $150,000, this is a change from last year where we didn’t have an entry in the revised estimates and I’m assuming that the main estimates of $246,000 prevailed.

Can the Minister indicate what took place, why we don’t have a revised estimate and has there been a change in net revenue for the Environment Fund?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Director Magrum.

Thank you, Ms. Magrum. Mr. Dolynny.

I appreciate the response here. The fees for water and soil analysis, this is a brand new entry here for 2014-2015 at $524,000. How did the department come up with that number? What was their basis and guidelines for $524,000?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This was based on a multi-year average of the figures we got from AANDC. Thank you.

Are those numbers publicly available? Thank you.

If there’s interest to share with committee, we could do that.

I just want to make sure what the fees we’ve got slated for the residents of the

Northwest Territories are indeed in line with what we acquired through AANDC, so again just a baseline. If the department wants to provide a baseline, I’ll definitely welcome it as a Member here, but I’ll leave it up to the Minister to decide.

On the subject of water use fees at $80,000, on what basis did the department set those fees at? Again, is this another number they got from AANDC?

Mr. Chairman, it’s the same process that was used with AANDC that we had talked about previously. Thank you.

We’ll provide to committee the methodology that was used in the negotiations with AANDC to determine the breakdown of these different line items. Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s response on that. Again, these are new entries, so I think we need to get a baseline. What we’re acquiring here as we’re passing this budget, we also have administration services at $32,000, again with no previous history whatsoever. Can the Minister describe what this entry is all about?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Director Magrum.

Thank you, director. Mr. Dolynny.

No, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Minister.

Thank you, committee. We’re on page 13-9, information item, revenue summary. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I want to ask about the Environment Fund net revenue. It’s showing $150,000. Is this a new fund? Okay, 2013-14 revised estimates isn’t showing any. Can I get maybe a brief description on as to this fund and this purpose and how it’s being used, who pays into the fund? I know if a company has been charged and convicted of a violation of environmental issues that they pay into the Environment Fund. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Director Magrum.

Thank you,Ms. Magrum. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. I certainly appreciate the clarification on this. I do want to ask the question then, I’m not too sure if I’m on the right page with this, in regard to companies that are charged and convicted of any type of environmental violation. Is there a fund that they pay into that is used to deal with this type of issue and cleanup and remediation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There’s not a fund that I’m aware of. If they are charged and found guilty, in all probability there would be a fine and they would be tasked with doing the remediation. We also have our own security deposits that we have for specific projects. But there’s no fund, as far as I’m aware, that we pay into like the one we do here that we’re talking about right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Minister. I see that in another avenue here. Okay, time is up.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Committee, we’re on 3-19, information item, revenue summary. Any questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 13-10, information item, active position summary. Any questions?

Thank you. Committee, 13-13, activity summary, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, $11.369 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Page 13-14, activity summary, corporate management, grants and contributions, $965,000. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of quick ones here. I see the IRMA program has ended and I know that was an important contribution to some of our Aboriginal communities. Is there a replacement? I believe that those were federal dollars. Is there anything being put in place in that stead?

And I’ll just ask my other one here. I want a bit of an explanation of the core funding for the NWT Water Board. How is that amount derived and does it include all costs like for the three-person little subcommittees that we’re planning on having for project-specific things and so on? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are taking over the IRMA program. It has been renamed, we find it on 13-34, I believe, when we get to it and its worth about $1.6 million.

In regards to the NWT Water Board I’ll ask Ms. Magrum if she wants to provide that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Ms. Magrum.

Thank you, Ms. Magrum. Mr. Bromley.

I thought it was an average cost for the last several years and there are four positions. Again, I believe the board is about 12 people. Is that right, or is it five people? Maybe I could get that figured out. Just with four positions for the board that would obviously be about $500,000, probably more, and any travel would eat up a considerable amount. Then there are the board members on top of that. It just seems like an awfully good deal to me. I’d be happy if that’s the full cost though. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll go to Minister Miltenberger.