Shane Thompson

Thank you. That's very much a Lands question but I can give you that since I'm wearing my Lands hat there right now. It's still in receivership. It's still in the court system right now. So we're not doing anything with it right now. Do we have a plan in place at any point in time? We are working on our plan presently. So yeah, that's about all I can say right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, it is my understanding that human health and ecological risk assessments are one of the six knowledge gaps that the Alberta government is working on. My understanding, in reaching out to the Alberta government, is Alberta has retained an independent consultant to complete the work to fill this information gap. Once the report is completed, then it's going to be given to the GNWT and then the GNWT, the department and the ones who we the consultants we've retained, will be looking at it and assessing it as in looking at the findings.

Madam Speaker, I want...

Yes, thank you very much. I have only been the Minister for the last two years, but I can tell you right now we've had the opportunity to meet with Indigenous governments, Indigenous leadership, and we had conversation, frank conversations, good communications, a lot of questions and answers, and we're trying to work together collaboratively. It's the most important part of what and how I feel with the department of ENR. We try to work with our Indigenous governments and our partners. And just for a little bit further detail, I'll ask the deputy minister to just give a little bit more update...

For that detail, I'll go to the deputy minister. Thank you.

For that detail, I'll just turn to the deputy minister. Yeah, because there's a number of avenues and other lines there that yeah, I'll just turn to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you. For that detail, you're going to have to ask the Finance Minister what the policy is, what the HR policy is. I'm not going to get into that. It was a decision made by us on how we're going to move forward on this and so we are following the chief public health officer's directions, and we are working with the federal government on how we deal with it. And for that detail of how that's being implemented, maybe save that question for the Finance Minister. Thank you.

Just to get clarity, I'm going to turn to the deputy minister. But it's 0 to 12 is where the cutting permits existed prior to the road. That's where the people were able do it. But to get clarity on it and it's not negotiations. I want to get it clear, we are working with the Tlicho government on their traditional territory and public lands. We are working with them. It's not negotiating. I need to stress we are working with them together collaboratively to come up with a process that's respectful of them in their Indigenous area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With your permission, I'll turn to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding of the 2014 report that the Member's talking about was jointly done with NWTAC. We're more than willing to work with them to go on there.

As for the inadequacies that the Member talks about, it's a budget process. We need to compete with other priorities for the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Member from Yellowknife North talked about $20 million for housing. Bam, let's give me $20 million for housing. Well, how do we take that compared to other issues? Housing is a priority. We've heard it in this House. But we have other...

Thank you. So the Member should be aware that my EAC is sending out emails that I get, and I send it to the Member right away. Whether we get them from the community, who are asking questions and that, when I send this stuff out there, the latest one was an issue about freeze up. We get that sent to the Member right away so she is aware of what's going on.

As for the formula, yes, it encompasses everything. Again, when we talk about the municipal funding formula, it was developed with NWTAC for the betterment of the territories, the 33 communities. So it's a formula that's used, and it counts...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and it's going to be a long answer on this one because I want to make sure we get the information out there.

In recent years, we have seen a decline in many caribou herds across the NWT and northern Canada. As you noted, the Bathurst herd declined from an estimated 47,000 in 1986 to 6,240 in 2021. At the time, we also saw a major decline in the BluenoseEast herd, declining from 120,000 in 2010 to 19,300 in 2018. The Beverly herd declined located to the east of the Bathurst herd was established at 103 in 2018. That's 103,000. And has been undergoing a slow decline in...