Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Let's start with boreal caribou. In the business plan, it says that the National Recovery Strategy is legally required and has to have at least a minimum of 65 per cent of undisturbed habitat. The next sentence says that currently approximately 66 per cent of the Northwest Territories range is undisturbed. We have a 1 per cent margin for the boreal caribou habitat remaining undisturbed to meet the National Recovery Strategy requirements.

Boreal caribou are important. We have this 1 per cent disturbance sort of limit that's out there. In the budget, though, boreal caribou...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, the company that got the contract is Parsons, which is an American company, unfortunately, but they have done work here before. In any event, I am not sure what their Aboriginal or northern hiring or contracting commitments were with the federal government who did the tendering process, but that would be interesting information to get.

I want to move on to the contaminated sites and remediation. I know one of the witnesses talked about how the money to actually do that work is in the Environment Fund, so can I just get a bit more of an explanation, then? So does ENR...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, the reason why I ask this is I am just looking at the water regulations now on my computer here, and the highest rate seems to be about $2 per 100 cubic metres of water. That seems to be a pretty low rate. You know, people pay more than $2 for a bottle of water at the grocery store. So has the department done any work to look at comparable rates that are charged by other jurisdictions in Canada for water use? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister again. Lots of talk with the NTPC. That's great, but let's put something in writing in the strategy about what the role is going to be for that corporation moving forward.

The relationship between the NWT Energy Strategy, the Climate Change Strategic Framework, and carbon pricing is not set out in the draft Energy Strategy. A reasonable person would expect to see greenhouse gas reductions linked to specific energy conservation, fuel-switching, technology targets, that would be funded by carbon pricing revenues and federal programs. That is...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Before anybody tries to say that I do not think people are doing their job, that is not the case. These folks have to work very hard. The Minister knows that. He is even laughing when I am saying this because he is probably going to come back on me about it. Those guys have very difficult jobs because they have to deal with members of the public, members of industry, who do not always understand what they are trying to do. I guess, is it fair to say that the water inspectors have a different kind of training and perhaps even a higher level of training and responsibilities...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that detail. I want to move back up to the contaminated sites and remediation line item, $319,000, and I believe one of our witnesses talked about how that is really for oversight and administration.

ENR is the GNWT partner on the Giant Mine remediation, and I know we are not responsible for paying for that, but the Giant Mine remediation is going to be the largest project ever undertaken in Yellowknife. I don't know what the cost figures are, because the federal government has not released anything recent, but it is going to be well over a billion...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can someone with the department tell me what the water use fees were, what those revenues were for last year, and what they are anticipated to be for this year? Actually, I think it is found on page 66. It is just up there, isn’t it, so that is the $80,000? Is that what that is? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Look, I'm not a fisherman, so what's meant by a "pickup point here in Yellowknife"? Is this a place where the product can be directly exported overseas, or is that the extent of the support from the department? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. I have expressed some concerns in the past about how representative and accountable the board is who administers this fund. It consists of government representatives and industry representatives. I think there is supposed to be one public representative. Is all of that going to be up for reconsideration when the Petroleum Resources Act comes up for review? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In fact, I'm furiously trying to flip through the business plan to find out what page he's talking about. I'm looking at the public version, which seems to only have about 50 pages for ITI - 51 pages, in fact. So is it a schedule in the business plan that I should be looking for? Thanks, Mr. Chair. Oh, maybe it's schedule 4.