Madam Chair, the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment took the job of reviewing Bill 74, Forest Act, very seriously. The bill itself will impact residents across the Northwest Territories in a tangible way if it receives assent, and the bill is the first to be co-drafted in the Northwest Territories.
A significant amount of the committee's time and energy went in to reviewing this bill line by line, listening to what the people thought about the bill, and brainstorming solutions to problems identified by committee members. This work is outlined in the committee's report which was read into the record on September 27th, 2023.
The committee received six written submissions and met with residents in person in three regions of the Northwest Territories to hear their perspectives on this matter. The committee consistently heard the need for information to be public and for climate change to be accounted for when decisions are being made about Northwest Territories forests.
Madam Chair, I also want to take this time to acknowledge that the standing committee travelled to Enterprise in June of 2023 to discuss Bill 74. The leadership of Enterprise showed the standing committee the firebreaks they had been building around their community. Madam chair, at that time the community of Enterprise was asking for more support from the government to help them build bigger firebreaks. The community was doing all they could with the resources they had, but they knew it wasn't enough. Unfortunately, a wildfire overtook the community of Enterprise just weeks later.
The recommendations formulated by the committee address the main concerns heard by both stakeholders and members of the public:
- Public information;
- Climate change;
- Public engagements; and,
- Consistency of forest management decisions.
It cannot go unmentioned the immense amount of respectful collaboration and negotiations that took place between this committee and the technical working group for Bill 74. Seeing as this bill was co-drafted, the committee was pleased to work with not just the Government of the Northwest Territories but representatives from Indigenous governments on workshopping this bill to make it as thorough and inclusive as possible.
The committee would like to thank all members of the technical working group for working so collaboratively with the committee. The committee expresses gratitude to everyone who made the effort to provide us with their thoughts in writing and in person during committee's review.
Individual Members may have additional comments. Mahsi, Madam Chair.