Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't have any further questions at this point.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Any further questions? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would like to start with page 78, the $200,000 that is shown under waste reduction. I believe that is for the agricultural strategy, but can someone confirm what that funding is for? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. It is for the agricultural strategy implementation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister provide some detail, then, on what that work is going to be? Part of the issue here is there is this agricultural strategy implementation funding that is sprinkled across a whole bunch of departments, and I am not sure how it is being coordinated. What is this funding going to accomplish? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we work in partnership with ITI, and Health and Social Services, and Lands, but our $200,000 appropriation is for development of best practices, policies, and regulations to support animal health; gap analysis in review of current waste resource practices and needs of the NWT; complete compiled list of current farming organizations and survey their work management practice; contracted veterinarian services, animal health monitoring, animal care and welfare outreach policy and program work; and review, analysis, and development of a framework to manage agricultural waste. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that detail. I want to move back up to the contaminated sites and remediation line item, $319,000, and I believe one of our witnesses talked about how that is really for oversight and administration.

ENR is the GNWT partner on the Giant Mine remediation, and I know we are not responsible for paying for that, but the Giant Mine remediation is going to be the largest project ever undertaken in Yellowknife. I don't know what the cost figures are, because the federal government has not released anything recent, but it is going to be well over a billion dollars.

What is ENR doing, maybe working with ITI, to make sure that people here in the Northwest Territories are going to benefit from that remediation effort? Is there anything that ENR is doing on that front? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Dr. Dragon.

Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to hear that. I would like to get some more details at some point.

Under the devolution agreement, there are more than 700 contaminated sites that are identified. This is a project that is probably going to start in the next two or three years. Well, I shouldn't say that, but this is an opportunity for us to build capacity locally, to do a lot of the other work that is going to come from the 700 contaminated sites, and start to build the kind of knowledge economy that my colleague from Yellowknife North talked about as well, where we have some expertise in knowledge of environmental remediation. I know that there's another big project at Norman Wells that is going to require a lot of remediation as well.

Can the Minister commit to give us, not now, but in writing or through a presentation, a little bit more about what our government is doing to help build capacity around the issue of environmental remediation and how that is linked to the knowledge economy? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, the company that got the contract is Parsons, which is an American company, unfortunately, but they have done work here before. In any event, I am not sure what their Aboriginal or northern hiring or contracting commitments were with the federal government who did the tendering process, but that would be interesting information to get.

I want to move on to the contaminated sites and remediation. I know one of the witnesses talked about how the money to actually do that work is in the Environment Fund, so can I just get a bit more of an explanation, then? So does ENR actually contract or carry out the remediation work or manage it in some way, or what is their role in these contaminated sites and remediation? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is that ENR does contract out the work to do the remediation on these on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.

Okay, thanks, Mr. Chair. I might have some other questions, but I do not think I am going to have enough time to get to that in this round, so I want to ask about the Climate Change Strategic Framework. We are supposed to be getting an action plan soon for that. Is there any money in this budget to carry out the action plan? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Dr. Dragon.