Michael Miltenberger

As we conclude this budget process and get geared up over the summer/fall, I will commit that we will consider the issue of how we provide support service in this area as we look at the business plans for 2012-13. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, there are some like Giant Mine where there is a separate agreement that will be separate from the agreement-in-principle where we have a signed arrangement with the federal government and ourselves, and then I will ask the deputy to speak about our responsibility on Commissioner’s land and some of the other waste site issues. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first question, just so it’s clear, Minister Bob McLeod and I had supper with Minister Kent and we raised the issue with the monitoring program, encouraging him to have Aboriginal representation on the board for it to be truly representative and successful, and we made the case. The Premier initially was there, but we made that case and that’s where we left that one.

The clearing house of information, we’ve talked about that. That’s one of our goals going out of the Water Strategy over time, is to be able to connect and make sure that we’re coordinated in terms of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the more remote and isolated communities there is a lot of interdepartmental cooperation as well as cooperation with the communities’ hunters and trappers groups, dog mushers, if they’re there, to deal with issues like rabies, like shots, pooling our resources, because there’s no specific clear program for this particular area that the Member’s talked about. As well as working with those, working with those universities that have veterinary colleges and where we’re able to work with veterinarians in the communities. So our intention would be to continue that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The intention at this still preliminary stage of the road of all this alternative energy money and the Biomass Strategy is to work with communities and regions to find ways to put in infrastructure that will allow the use of biomass and in where it makes sense and their technology is there, if there is a district heating, district power kind of opportunity that is there, we are interested in that as well. The Member has to keep in mind what we are talking about here. The 16th Assembly has started the process that is going to stretch out before us I would suggest for...

Mr. Chairman, currently if you looked at a map from northern Alberta all the way down to the Arctic, in the NWT I think in the neighbourhood of about 148 different types of monitoring is going on. One of the challenges and problems is that it is often very disconnected, that companies are doing it. Some government agencies are doing it. Other government agencies are doing it. Different levels of government are doing it.

The other question and the big concern around the oil sands is: was it the right kind of monitoring? Were we testing for the right things in all of these exotic substances like...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Gary Bohnet, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources; and Nancy Magrum, the director of finance and admin services for ENR and ITI.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve met with the mayor and his people about this project along with ENR staff. We’ve provided some modest assistance doing some preplanning. We, of course, are looking at, if this goes ahead, the impact that it would have in terms of savings to energy costs and the various government buildings that are there, but at this point, there has been no, that I’m aware of, no specific monetary ask from the City of Yellowknife. They’re aware of our limitations, which we discussed with Mayor Van Tighem. While we are supportive, that has been more in the moral support kind of...

Mr. Chairman, we have heard the Member’s concern. I have noted it and we will be considering that as we do the work in the coming months. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present the 2011-12 main estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The plan proposes total operational expenses of almost $67.5 million for the upcoming year, an increase of 2.6 percent.

The mandate of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is to promote and support the sustainable use and development of natural resources and to protect, conserve and enhance our environment for the social and economic benefit of all residents.

A range of activities is proposed to uphold this mandate and I would like to take this...