Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like to talk a bit about watershed management. It is the fifth program under program detail. I'm wondering if there is some work being done on the Slave River which runs from another jurisdiction. What type of work is going on in the Slave River in as far as monitoring, developing baselines, and seeing if the water that's flowing out close to Fort Resolution is still water that is not affected by whatever is happening upstream. I'm wondering if that information is collected from a yeartoyear basis for the Slave River. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'd like to know if the Minister would be able to provide the amount of money that is in that fund and what we're responsible for. I'm trying to get an indication of whether or not we're ever going to clean up the sites. So if there's only a million dollars and there is $150 million's worth of contaminated sites, I'll have a good indication that we are never going to catch up, but I'd like to get those numbers so that we could have a feel for them. I'm not expecting the numbers now, but if the Minister could commit to providing that, and, if possible, also the same information for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was just wondering if the money that's in this Environmental Liabilities Fund is money that's generally there to leverage other money or if that's the full pot to clean up the contaminated sites that are the responsibility of the GNWT? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I recognize that it's another department. Instead of going through the process of asking the question again then, I was wondering if this department knows how much money is in the Environmental -- I forget the term, but the money that's in Finance to do the actual cleanup? Could somebody tell me how much money is there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, I move that we rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to touch on the topics I would like to cover during the review of the Environment and Natural Resources budget. I am interested in seeing what type of forest development with working with some forest industry people can be realized by the department and by the Government of the Northwest Territories.

I am interested in where things go with the conservation economy. There is a lot of talk about developing some sort of conservation economy in order to develop or look at possible legislation that may exist in protecting wetlands. I think that is...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is that data available to the department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know in the House, small communities have lower incomes and there would be some impact from the carbon tax so this money that the federal government has put in place is very specific to transitioning Indigenous off diesel fuel. I was wondering if the Minister could advise us if there have been any discussions specific to that initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, is intermittent water quality information on the Talston River sufficient for the department to do any mitigation, if necessary? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The focus of the charette will be discussions and impacts and opportunities presented by the impending carbon tax and come up with a northern solution. Will the GNWT begin discussions with the group that is working on coming up with a charette?