Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s been since 2007 that there’s been a fire crew there. So yes, we will have our folks and the deputy will arrange to make sure there are discussions with Tsiigehtchic about the upcoming fire season. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We accept. We’ll follow up with Mr. Bromley. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree that we’re going to be challenged more and more to try to anticipate the plan for the future. Prevention, as the Member indicates, is one thing; mitigation and adaptation are going to be the other two. So this particular division has a role to play, but if we’re going to link all the pieces not only in this department but other departments that have that prognostication function and as we move through Managing this Land and other committees that we have, that type of work and the budgeting side as well as we project our fire costs, for example, and costs that...

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re in year four of drought, and cycles could go four to five years. So I agree with the Member, I’ve been making the same observations based on just what we’ve seen from lack of major fall rains to the snow pack this year and the fact that we’re in such deep drought, it will take a significant amount of snow to affect that and we anticipate it could be a long, hot summer.

We learned last fire season, which was by far and away the biggest we’ve ever had, on the need to recruit internally in the Northwest Territories. We can’t rely on southern resources because they...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Thaidene Nene has been identified as a priority that we want to move on as a government post-devolution with northern tools. There’s been significant contact with the federal government indicating our interest in a small federal footprint complemented and supplemented by an array of northern tools that may be there, things like territorial parks, conservation areas, wilderness areas, special study areas, those types of options. We’ve been actively working with Lutselk’e now for a number of months. We’ve compressed, I believe, about 18 months or two years of normal...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments and his suggestions of where we could make life better. I want to reassure him that even though he challenges my memory, I have not forgotten what it’s like to be a Regular Member. I just want to reassure the Member of that as he constantly reminds me that I’ve forgotten, and I constantly remind him that I can well remember.

Unfortunately, I’m going to just tell him some things that he doesn’t want to hear. He says he knows the answers. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is working, in my opinion, at capacity. In fact...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’re very interested in pursuing biomass initiatives. There are those projects underway in the community, as the Member indicates. As we achieve success, we’re interested in looking at those. There are other ones with the Willows and waste heat. I commend Fort McPherson, as well, for their initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Ernie Campbell and Ms. Susan Craig from Environment and Natural Resources, the deputy minister and finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do. I am pleased to present the 2015-2016 Main Estimates for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Overall, the department’s estimates propose a decrease of $112,000, which is less than 1 percent over the 2014-2015 Main Estimates.

These estimates continue to support the objectives of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

$1.5 million for the continued implementation of the Water Stewardship Strategy, including the implementation of transboundary...