Michael Miltenberger

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few people in the gallery today. Ms. Denise Yuhas, a very successful businesswoman and one of the best constituency assistants in the business. Bonnie Lynch, one of our northern trained and very capable nurses; and Ms. Theresa Beaulieu from Fort Smith as well. Welcome to the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If all goes according to plan, the intention is to give notice for first reading on the 7th of March.

Thank you. We will listen carefully to the Member’s suggestion and request. The issue of a top-up is one I will check. Our responsibility is mainly to do with the surface remediation and, of course, we’ve already contributed $27 million that we’ve booked for our share. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The discussions we’ve had with Mr. Pollard in regard to regulatory reform and the work he’s doing and some of our concerns have focused on other areas. Though we have talked about properly funding the processes that are currently there that haven’t been funded, things like cumulative impact. Thank you.

Thank you. The government shares the Member’s interest and concern in moving with this act. It’s been identified by this Legislature and the government as a priority piece of legislation. We are taking it down to the wire. So the intention, as I indicated, is to bring it forward into this House to give notice in the last week, from the 7th to the 10th, give it first and second reading, hopefully, and get approved, and then it will become the property of the committee to be able to do their consultation and either in May or August bring it back for third reading. Thank you.

Thank you. The AIP negotiations have yet to start. We’ve signed an agreement to start the negotiations and there is a section on remediation of sites and I will check whether Giant Mine is within that particular process or not, but the main point being that we’ve just initialled the document and the actual negotiation process has yet to start. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.