Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of ECC.
Mr. Speaker, earlier I talked about Bill 7 that was introduced in the House in Alberta, proposing merging waters basins which would disrupt northern rivers and threatens our ecosystem and communities. What action will the Minister take to address this clear violation of the transboundary water agreement and also protecting and upholding treaty rights? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as is required under our transboundary water agreement, the GNWT and Alberta will continue to monitor and assess water quantity and quality against our interim triggers that we have within our agreement, and we'll relay that information to the public via the annual report as we've done over the last number of years and through our bilateral management committee. And I am very happy to say that the bilateral management committee has representations from two Indigenous governments that sit directly on the NWT Water Strategy Indigenous Steering Committee. So we've also relayed our displeasure, if you will, with that approach from the Alberta government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Alberta currently has a zero tailings pond policy. Bill 7 seeks to replace it with a fast track path to threatening releasing wastewater into our river system. Mr. Speaker, in Alberta, they're talking about building a nuclear dam and also database centres that are going to require a lot of water. So my question, does the Minister consider this as a violation of our transboundary water agreement? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's kind of a multi-pronged question, but I will do my best here.
So currently under Alberta's own Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, they are unable to release tailings water into the ecosystem. There's the federal Fisheries Act that also applies here. So in order for them to be able to release tailings, they would need to have essentially created the process alongside the federal government. Ultimately, the federal government has jurisdiction here, so they would be the ones that would have to create the appropriate guidelines to do that.
We have clearly stated from our perspective as the Northwest Territories as the ultimate downstream jurisdiction, that we don't support this approach. And for the other items that were raised by the Member, whether it's the nuclear power plant, we're involved in that conversation. We have been from the beginning, and we will continue. And likewise with the data centres and realizing that that has an impact on our water as well.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The transboundary water agreement has no enforcement mechanism. Are there any -- currently no consequences of violators occur. How does the Minister plan to address these shortcomings and ensure downstream users and communities are protected? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the transboundary water agreement is the key tool that we use to ensure that we're able to monitor, gather information, whether that's through our conversations within the agreement with Alberta. We use that information to inform the Indigenous governments across the Northwest Territories. Many of them are involved in our monitoring programs on the north side of the border. And we continue to use that information to ensure that our pre-determined thresholds are not exceeded. And so we have -- part of our agreement, it speaks to the aquatic ecosystem health as well as the quantity of the water. So those are -- the transboundary water agreement is really the key piece that allows us to continue to monitor on our side, gather the relevant information from Alberta, and ensure that if there are changes we are aware and able to address those in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
