Robert C. McLeod

I believe we are always monitoring the quality of the water, especially with some of the projects that are going on in the southern jurisdictions. We have the Mackenzie data stream project, and I believe we have monitoring stations in almost 22 communities, as far as the work of the Northwest Territories. I would encourage Members to go on I believe there is a website, the Mackenzie data stream website. We have a lot of monitoring stations on the Mackenzie, down the valley. As they propose to do some work in the southern jurisdictions, I think the importance of the water monitoring on our part...

The work of the board is to provide a state of aquatic environment report every five years, and they get the funding to do that work. My understanding is that the next version of the report is coming out in 2020. I would have to follow up to see if there are yearly reports that are put out. I was on the board's website to see if there was an opportunity to find a yearly update, but I can look at that. The report is due in 2020.

Here in the Northwest Territories, we fully understand and respect the effects that residential schools have had on a number of our people in the Northwest Territories, and we try to work with them. I can commit to the Member that we will reach out, we will work with people, and if the Member or Members have any specific cases where folks are having trouble navigating through the system, I would encourage them to bring that to my attention so we can deal with it in a fair and timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The increase is an additional $390,000 funding for the development of the Climate Change Strategic Framework. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, let's give some credit to the folks who go out there. These are people who are experienced hunters, and wolves are what they are after. If they try to use caribou as bait, they could get charged for that. We will come down hard on that. I have heard of stories, not here, where caribou was used as bait. Credit to the local hunters' and trappers' associations, they got after those. To me, that is just ignorant, and it shouldn't be done. Let's give them some credit. I don't think they will be doing that.

As far as collateral damage, it is wolves they are after...

In our discussions, again, with our Aboriginal partners and hearing from people across the Northwest Territories, they are very concerned with the declining caribou numbers. I think that we shared the numbers with you, especially on the barren-ground caribou, where the numbers dropped dramatically. Building on those discussions, I have actually directed the department to develop a plan to improve our monitoring, develop and implement mitigation plans, involve our Aboriginal partners, and improve the science related to the barren-ground caribou herds that are currently facing population...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is absolutely correct. There is a lot of concern down the valley about the water that is coming from BC, and then there is concern with the Site C dam project. We had signed a transboundary water agreement with both Alberta and British Columbia in 2015, and the intent of these agreements was to promote the effective transboundary water management and ensure that water that is flowing into the NWT remains substantially unaltered in quality, quantity, and the rate of flow. Implementation of these two agreements is currently under way. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, it's not going to be impacted by the reductions. I think our folks over at the department are still capable of doing high-quality work within the $88-million appropriation budget that they do have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We haven't finalized it yet. We are working with our Tlicho partners to come up with a plan going forward. As the Member said, this program here has been beneficial to help them to take some of the wolf population out as well as assisting in helping our contractors. We could do it by air, but who will benefit from that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.