Thank you, Mr. Chair. The short answer is that it doesn't. I think that Dr. Dragon gave an explanation before about the fact that we are trying to use a lot of video conferencing now when we are having some of these discussions, but there is always going to be a need for some face-to-face conversations. I believe that there is still some money that is available for that. No, we don't believe that it is affecting our ability to try to negotiate these Transboundary Water Agreements, and if there comes a time when we feel that it is affecting our ability, then I am sure that ENR will come back to the FMB. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am, of course, just trying to find what it said in the mandate commitment. I think that the understanding was that we were going to actually have all of these remaining agreements signed off, including ones with the Yukon and Nunavut and so on. How come we are not making as much progress on these as we had anticipated at the time that the mandate was put together? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to try and make as much progress with our partners as possible. We are always prepared to go to the table and do some negotiations. Negotiations involve two parties, and if our other party is not getting to the table as quickly as we would like, then that affects our ability to get this work done. I said before, when I was responding to the Member's question, that I know that I signed the one Transboundary Water Agreement with Alberta. My understanding is that a final BC-NWT agreement was also signed in 2015, and we are holding an information session with Nunavut about the process and progress to date with respect to the Transboundary Water Agreement. ENR met with the Government of Saskatchewan to discuss a Saskatchewan-NWT agreement for shared waters. The final Yukon-NWT agreement was signed in 2002, and parties to the existing agreement met in March 2018 to discuss the existing Yukon-NWT transboundary water agreement. I think I took a long way to respond to the Member's question about whether it's affecting our ability or not as far as the negotiations go, and the short answer is that we do not believe it is. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, yes, the mandate commitment is we will negotiate Yukon, Nunavut, and Saskatchewan toward the completion of a transboundary water agreement, so does the Minister expect, then, that by September we are going to have negotiated transboundary agreements with Yukon, Nunavut, and Saskatchewan? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is, with the Yukon, we are expecting to have updated agreements to be completed during the life of this Assembly. My understanding is Saskatchewan is going through a legal review, and Nunavut is doing some water strategy work. The Yukon one will be updated. We will see what happens with the legal review out of Saskatchewan. I am not sure where Nunavut is at. I would like to see them all done by the life of this Assembly, seeing as it was a mandate commitment, but sometimes we do what we can to try to expedite our end; we just need our partners to work with us to get their end of it done, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to go quickly to Site C again. We are having an effect with the Bennett dam. When it opens and closes, we see water levels come up and down there. With Site C have other provinces or First Nations people come to the government or the department and asked them for their help to deal with this situation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Of course it is a concern, as I mentioned earlier, about the dams that are going there and the water flow to the territory. We see it up in the Beaudel, where the water level sometimes fluctuates up and down. I know we have had some Aboriginal governments who have come to us say that they do have a concern with that and want to know how we plan on dealing with it, so we have been trying to work with them to assure them that the Government of the Northwest Territories is doing what we can to bring their concerns forward. At the end of the day, I believe the decision is kind of out of our control because it is in BC, so we just have to make the case to these particular jurisdictions that it's having an effect on the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Seeing nothing further from committee, I will call this activity. Environment and Natural Resources, water management and monitoring, operations expenditure summary, $9,349,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Please turn to activity 6, wildlife, starting on page 88. Comments or questions? Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The first day of this sitting, I asked the Minister about the status of the Bathurst caribou range plan, and I still do not have an answer, so I will try again. Can the Minister tell me what's happening with this range plan? Thank you.

Thank you. Dr. Dragon.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes. I was involved in starting the work on that before I even arrived here, so I am worried that this is taking way too long while the herd continues to decline. The Minister, in response to questions from my colleague earlier today, talked about the need to develop a plan. That is the plan for the Bathurst caribou herd. Everybody was involved in making it. How much longer is it going to take to get this thing approved, and does it have to go through Cabinet? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding in talking to the deputy is that within a month or so we will be able to bring it to Cabinet and get Cabinet's input. Then I believe it will go out to the public afterwards; go out to committee, then the public. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Good catch. Mr. O'Reilly.