Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I have questions for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change in follow up to my statement today.
So the 2025 environmental audit provided a number of recommendations on how to improve cumulative impact monitoring and management. I appreciate that it is the land and water boards in most cases and not the GNWT that is tasked with ultimately approving or denying projects, but the boards can only make good decisions if they're provided with clear input based on science and TK and there are clear wildlife management and land use plans, all of which the GNWT has a critical role in.
So first question: How is the GNWT acting on Environmental Audit Recommendation 2-4 in particular? So this is to direct more resources from cumulative impact monitoring towards providing the kinds of predictions and scenarios and risk analysis that would support better decision-making. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Cumulative Impact Assessment program is a key part of environmental assessment in the Northwest Territories, and certainly the work that's done in that area is very important and really informs development all across the North and certainly with all of the economic opportunities that we have certainly sitting in front of us right now. So what the department has done is we have focused on our collaborative effort, along with the Mackenzie Valley land and water boards, and focusing our program resources to more information sharing and working together toward developing some tools. And after, as the discussions go along, hopefully a pilot project that will be able to implement some of that collaborative work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I do look forward to hearing more specific things about those tools as they get developed.
I wanted to ask about the Cumulative Land Disturbance Framework, and so that is mentioned in the Bathurst Caribou range plan in particular and it's supposed to set limits on human activity. Can the Minister clarify, would that mean that, for example a new all-weather road would be prohibited through a zone that was deemed high risk in this kind of land disturbance framework? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're currently working on some policy documents that will help to guide, you know, all-weather roads through caribou habitat. So this work is ongoing. Currently there's no defined route for the Arctic Energy Security Corridor so very hard to answer specifically until a route is developed. But certainly, you know, the Bathurst and all of the caribou in the Northwest Territories are top of mind, and we are certainly looking at all of the potential impacts and how we can mitigate those along by working with our Indigenous partners all across the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I wonder if the Minister can clarify the current status of the strategic regional environmental assessment for the Slave Geological Province that was initiated in early 2023, one of the tools I mentioned in my statement that's in our Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so that project, it was initiated in 2023 as the Member has indicated. It never did get off the ground in a meaningful way, so the budget and the resources that were assigned to the project have now been reassigned to individual Indigenous governments to address and work on areas of concern directly related to the Arctic Energy and Security Corridor. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
