Michael Miltenberger

This is not a federal program. When it’s a federal program, all the provinces and territories have agreements signed with each other. So if there’s a significant demand in, for example, Ontario and they need help and they call us and we’re able to send people, we will do that and we will recover our costs. Henceforth, going forward forevermore it will be listed right now under page 13-38 under work performed on behalf of others. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the comments from the Member. In regard to the reduced budget, part of the money that’s in the budget from last year that is not there this year yet is about $6 million that we got through special warrant and through the House to fight fires. So chances are, given the issue of the base budget, and the fact that things are drying out rapidly, and the relative humidity is dropping, and we’ve already had some fire starting, we will be back requesting further funding to fight fires as they do arise. So the $9 million, as the Member said, it is actually what we...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, wildlife is valued by all people in the NWT and contributes to our well-being and economy. A new Wildlife Act is needed to effectively manage wildlife in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has prepared a draft of the proposed new Wildlife Act for public review and comment. This draft was developed with extensive input from Aboriginal organizations, wildlife renewable resource boards, residents, industry and other stakeholders.

To ensure everyone has the opportunity to provide additional input into the proposed new Wildlife Act, ENR is...

The Member referenced earlier, I think in one of his previous general comments, work being done monitoring in Fort Resolution and Fort Smith. This summer we have identified the need to do the work above and below Norman Wells to provide that same kind of monitoring. Over time, as we set up our community-based water monitoring systems, we want to be able to work with the communities and our own skilled resources to provide that assurance across the North. But for this summer there is going to be specific work done to do some of the testing that the Member has referenced. Thank you.

The Land Use and Sustainability Framework is an initiative that is being driven and handled through the Executive.

The forest management agreements have been triggered specifically by the project that’s under consideration right now, or development right now for a pellet plant. We, ITI, the government is at the table trying to do our part. The arrangements between the business in the communities in terms of negotiating access to the material, the capacity building, are going to be driven through that business arrangement. There will still be ongoing access to existing programs that the territorial government now has that could be possibly brought to bear, as well, but the main relationship will be between...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are two main areas. We are continuing to work on inventories of the forest, and an equally important piece, especially as you look at the possibility of a biomass plant being put up that could do as many as 30,000 metric tons, are these forest management agreements that would have to be entered into with the Aboriginal governments and the GNWT to be able to have access to the material to generate the pellets in a sustainable, go-forward basis so the person or the business making the pellets is able to buy the material to make the pellets.

Forest management...

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What we have here from 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 is a change in accounting treatment. In the past we would list it on a revenue summary, but as we have gone through all our reviews, there’s no markup or profit generated. So there’s not a revenue, we just get compensated for our costs. It’s a mutual aid agreement and it could apply to aircraft, it could apply to crews and equipment as well. So this year it’s not going to be listed in revenue. Going forward, it won’t be an item in the budget anymore identified under the revenue summary.