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.