Yes, I do, sir.

Sergeant-at-Arms, can you please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Mahsi.

Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on the far right is deputy minister Erin Kelly and closest to me is Jessica St. Arnaud, the director of finance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. Committee, we were finished forest management yesterday. So today we're starting with water management and monitoring beginning on page 87, with information item on page 90. And I open it up for questions. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So this is the section of the ENR budget where transboundary waters matters are found, and I just have one question, to start with, about page 89. There's these contributions. It shows transboundary waters as a line item there back in 2020-2021. It was $414,000, and now it's being become proposed at 185. Can I just get an explanation as to what happened in that previous year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

For that detail I'll turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Ms. Kelly

Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.

Yeah, okay, thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks for that information. I'd mentioned the last couple of days one of the big areas of concern for myself and I'm hearing from others is this proposed tailings, oil sands or tar sands tailings discharge regulations development, and I understand that we've wanted to try to get some better engagement and involvement with oil sands monitoring. There's a body called the oil sands monitoring program oversight committee, and then there's some technical advisory committees that I guess work with that committee as well. And as I understand it, we had -- GNWT wanted to get some involvement in that committee so that we could perhaps even get better prepared for potential discharges. So I'd like to ask the Minister whether he has indeed written to the Government of Alberta requesting membership on these committees and what the response has been from the provincial government. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Member for this question. Yeah, we did write a letter to Minister Nickerson, I believe is correct. And then just recently I received a response from Minister Nickerson that Alberta is not supportive of providing a seat to the GNWT on the oil sands monitoring program oversight committee and the technical advisory committee. We are very disappointed that Alberta is not supporting our request as this committee has made decisions about monitoring at sites identified in Alberta-NWT bilateral water management agreement. Minister Nickerson has made commitments in his response to our request to increase senior level communications, scheduled more frequent meetings, and updates between the Government of Alberta and the NWT. He also advised Alberta's commitment to share information to address the GNWT concerns and interests related to the oil sands development in their proposal to develop regulations that allow for release of that treated tailing water to the Athabasca River. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. Let's just say I'm a little bit more than surprised that the provincial government would deny a request to sit on this committee. This is, I guess, one of the committees too that had some oversight on the monitoring upstream that Alberta unilaterally decided to stop as part of its industry relief around COVID. So what reasons were provided by the provincial government to deny membership or not support GNWT's membership on this committee? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Minister.

Thanks. For that detail, I'll ask the deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Deputy minister.

Mahsi. Mr. O'Reilly.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for that. Well, with all due respect, how can you part of a transboundary agreement when the provincial government upstream won't even share information; won't even allow you to be at the table when monitoring is being discussed? This is totally unacceptable. I would like to know from the Minister what the position of the federal government is on our request to sit on this committee?

Mahsi, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you. So we have written a letter to the federal minister but we haven't received a formal response from Canada on our request and we continue to engage with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada on our request as both the Government of Canada and Alberta co-chair the oil sands monitoring program oversight committee. So we have been reaching out to Minister Gibeault on this very topic. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.