Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can get the community to reach out. I just need to know if the regional superintendent is the person who we should be reaching out to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The regional superintendent is the point of contact. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Nothing further from Mr. Thompson. I will call this activity. Environment and Natural Resources, forest management, operations expenditure summary, $34,832,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Please turn to the next activity, beginning on page 84, water management and monitoring. Comments or questions? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Recently, we have seen some correspondence come in to some Members with regard to groups and different organizations that have been concerned with the Site C dam in BC. I know that we have a transboundary agreement with British Columbia and Alberta, and this is, of course, the Peace River that is affected. I am wondering if the Minister can give us some insight as to what effects the Site C dam has with regard to our transboundary agreement with British Columbia, and do we have any concerns or any need to be concerned with regard to the development of the Site C dam? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is absolutely correct. There is a lot of concern down the valley about the water that is coming from BC, and then there is concern with the Site C dam project. We had signed a transboundary water agreement with both Alberta and British Columbia in 2015, and the intent of these agreements was to promote the effective transboundary water management and ensure that water that is flowing into the NWT remains substantially unaltered in quality, quantity, and the rate of flow. Implementation of these two agreements is currently under way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the Minister for giving some description on the transboundary agreements and what our expectations are from them, but, knowing that now we have these boundary agreements in place, do we have any reason to be concerned, based on those agreements, with regard to the development of the actual Site C dam? Have we shared any concern with the BC government that a dam such as this will potentially impact our aquatic ecosystem, I guess, if we want to call it that, or even our subsistence harvesting? Do we have any concern in that regard? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is always concern when there is water flowing into the NWT from other jurisdictions, and that is one of the reasons we signed a transboundary water agreement with them. Our officials participated in a three-year environmental assessment review process and provided recommendations to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency about potential downstream impacts from this hydro expansion project. Part of that is a community-based monitoring program. I think there are 40 sample sites as part of our community-based water-monitoring program, and there are 22 communities as part of the community-based monitoring program. Obviously, we are concerned. As to actually if we have any say in it, my understanding is it flows through Alberta and then into the Northwest Territories, so we continue to monitor that, and we will make our views known. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay. So, then, it seems to me that we are quite confident that the transboundary agreements are adequately covering off, confidently covering off, on any concerns that we might have as it relates to the development of the Site C dam. I am happy to hear that we are going to keep monitoring that. What about further transboundary water agreements? I know that Saskatchewan waters and Yukon waters are clearly borders that we also have good reason to be concerned with. Have we or are we in the midst of negotiating agreements with regard to transboundary watersheds with Saskatchewan and the Yukon? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Dr. Dragon.

Thank you. Seeing nothing further from committee at this point, I am going to call a five-minute recess. Thank you, committee.

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I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we were in ENR, activity 5, water management and monitoring. Comments or questions? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think that I heard from our friends here that, in water management and monitoring, there was an $85,000 reduction in water research and studies and a $50,000 reduction in travel. I am wondering how that is impacting our ability to negotiate the Transboundary Water Agreements. Maybe I could start with: have there been any new agreements signed during the life of this Assembly? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In my time as Minister, I have signed one Transboundary Water Agreement, and I believe that that was with Alberta, but I inherited the portfolio, I believe, about a year and a half into this Assembly. We have three existing Transboundary Water Agreements right now with Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon, but I believe that the other two might have been signed in the 17^th. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was my understanding, that there haven't actually been any signed during the life of the 18^th Assembly. You can see it even on page 85 of the main estimates, where water partnerships and agreements has a $200,000 reduction between 2018-2019 and those proposed for 2019-2020. Even if you go back further in time, the budget was higher. Are these progressive cuts over time affecting our capability and capacity in terms of negotiating and signing these arrangements and implementing them? Thanks, Mr. Chair.