Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MACA is working with communities. They do have an investment, as does this government, through our various boards and agencies and departments to work with communities, to work with all aspects of government services and programs to look to the best building standards possible. In some cases we have direct authority. In some cases we can use moral suasion in how we do our capital plans. MACA is there along with the Energy Alliance, Public Works and all the other arms of government.

The Member knows and has been intimately involved in the process for the Greenhouse Gas...

The Member has offered two fairly significant extremes: one to invite him up to live in the North and camp on a river, or take him to court. I appreciate the intensity of the Member’s concern and we’re going to look for a more happy medium where we’ll talk to the Minister, we’ll have meetings with him and we’ll raise the concerns about what’s happening south of our borders and the need for strong transboundary agreements and proper monitoring on those major developments such as the oil sands. Thank you.

We have the good fortune to have one of our very capable staff, Dr. Erin Kelly, who is going to be involved in the process. As well, we’re going to be talking to Minister Kent about the scope of the project to make sure that they take a broad look at the monitoring that needs to be done and not narrow it down so that it becomes less than adequate. That work is underway, and through our Water Strategy and the negotiations we have on our transboundary, we’re also going to be pursing that very important issue as well. Thank you.

Thank you. That’s the challenge for all of us as we look at protecting the environment, the land, the water and the animals and balancing that with the resource development and economic development. When you talk about making land available for resource development, there is a number of different levels to that. There is land that’s taken up by communities. There’s land taken up for resource development. There are lands taken up for other reasons. So we’re going to make sure that we strive for that balance, and in some of the regions like the Deh Cho, there are figures being used in terms of...

Thank you. That’s not really specific or germane to the Wildlife Act. It is a discussion that we’ve had when we’ve talked about land use for example with the Dehcho Land Use Plan and other areas. As we look at finalizing our land use framework, we will be dealing more precisely with that particular issue. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think it behooves us all to have as energy-efficient building standards for all people in the Northwest Territories as possible. The issue is going to be to sort through the regulatory and government’s issues to, in fact, be able to allow ourselves to do that so that we, in fact, as the Member indicated, will have a common standard that is as high as the government sets for itself. Thank you.

Within government there is already clear evidence of our commitment to the proper energy-efficient building standards both in the commercial and residential areas. There is a process we have committed to in terms of consultation and working with the public and stakeholder groups to get their feedback, to get their best advice, and we’re going to do that. It’s not a question of myself, as Minister, standing up and trying to rule by fiat, which does not tend to work that well in a consensus government environment. I’m very sensitive to the Member’s concerns and when we bring this Greenhouse Gas...

We agree with the Member that this is a very serious issue. It’s been one of the driving priorities of Environment and Natural Resources during the life of this Assembly, has been to bring forward the Water Strategy to engage with the federal family to do the work necessary.

I must give credit where credit is due. INAC at the regional level has been extremely supportive of our efforts. We are going to be meeting with Minister Kent and one of the issues on our agenda is to discuss water concerns that we do have, monitoring issues, transboundary issues, and the need to take all the steps...

In point of fact, Minister Kent is in the North for the next couple of days and we will have an opportunity to pass on those very strong concerns to Minister Kent. He will be, as well, taking advantage of the opportunity to visit parts of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a matter of course there are a number of monitoring stations all the way up, down to the Arctic, but the reality is a recent federal panel found that the monitoring as it relates to the oil sands is not sufficient, that it’s confused, that there are new mandates needed. Then Minister Baird announced that they were going to put together a plan and a board that’s going to set up a cutting-edge monitoring protocol. That work is underway. I think they gave themselves 90 days or thereabouts, and that work is underway. There’s a recognition that more has to be done, that...