Bob McLeod

I believe we already have such an agreement, the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement, in which negotiations began in 1960, was signed in 1997, and commits the Governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Yukon, and Canada, and now includes Nunavut, towards cooperatively managing the water and aquatic ecosystems of the entire Mackenzie River Basin.

This agreement makes provisions for the parties to negotiate bilateral water management agreements to waters that are shared directly between two jurisdictions, and as per the master agreement, the Northwest...

In the Mackenzie River basin, every province and territory is responsible for water management within their own jurisdictions. Transboundary agreements are bilateral in nature and, as such, address waters that flow between two jurisdictions. The waters of the Peace River flow directly between British Columbia and Alberta.

The Northwest Territories-Alberta Bilateral Water Management Agreement deals directly with waters that flow between Alberta and the Northwest Territories, such as the Slave River. This is the approach defined in the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Master Agreement. As...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to recognize a Page from Yellowknife south, Marie Carpenter, as well as Carmen Moore, our Chief of Protocol. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled "Letter to Minister Bennett from Gary Vivian, President NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines Regarding Northern Minerals Industry Submission on the Arctic Policy Framework, dated February 28, 2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Through the environmental assessment process for Site C, the Government of the Northwest Territories provided numerous submissions, including advice regarding potential downstream impacts to aquatic ecosystems in the Northwest Territories.

Our Government of the Northwest Territories submissions are pubic and are available on the Canadian and environment assessment agency's website. The Government of the Northwest Territories incorporated into its submissions concerns heard about the Site C expansion from Northwest Territories residents and Indigenous governments and organizations. As the Member...

Following the three-year environmental assessment process, the Site C project received federal and provincial approval in 2014. Construction of the Site C expansion project began in 2015, and the decision to approve the project included 80 conditions, which are intended to prevent or reduce impacts to the Peace River.

As well, our government negotiated transboundary water agreements with Alberta and also with British Columbia. The Transboundary Water Agreement with British Columbia primarily focuses on the Liard River basin, whereas the Peace River system flows into Alberta, so we are relying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ten years ago, the BC Minister of Energy along with a planeload of BC hydro officials flew down to Yellowknife to advise our government that they would be proceeding with building Site C and that they were proceeding into an environmental assessment mode. At that time, we advised them of our experience with the effects of the Bennett Dam. We were concerned about it. They told us that Site C would only have a 12-kilometre reach downstream of Site C, so we shouldn't have to worry about it, but we told them that we didn't believe that. Our experience is that it would have...

We would be pleased to discuss it with committees certainly, if it is appropriate. I am just wondering. Our experience has been that sometimes it affects the input from people who are there, but certainly, I have no problem with it. We should at least have a discussion on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have yet to confirm the date and location. Because of the fact that we are working to a timeline set by the federal government, the most recent timeline that we know we are working towards is they are looking for a draft by July of 2018. I expect within the next couple of months, somewhere in there, would give us enough time to organize. I would expect probably within the next couple of months.

It would be premature for me to disclose the findings before we disclose them to the North Slave Metis Alliance, but we are certainly, as I said, supportive of all Aboriginal groups having their rights clarified. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.