Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had a constituent reach out to me yesterday about the Wonder Valley AI data centre. It's backed by a celebrity investor, and it's to be built near Grand Prairie, which is in the Mackenzie Basin watershed. It's expected to be 65 square kilometres in size and estimated to use up to 24 million cubic metres of clean water annually. To put that in perspective, 24 million cubic metres is lifetime consumption of 460,000 people, Mr. Speaker. Alberta has decided there's no environmental assessment needed, just permits. So my question for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change is how will the GNWT assess impacts on water quantity or quality and intervene if required? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member has indicated, the Wonder Valley AI data centre project is a large project. It certainly is a large water consumer and currently there are no regulatory submissions within the province of Alberta so therefore at this time there is no project to do an evaluation on. We will continue to monitor the situation and evaluate -- participate when the opportunity arises. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, without an environmental assessment I don't know at what point the Minister could intervene. Could he clarify? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, without the ability to intervene in a non-existent environmental assessment, we will certainly use the tools that we currently have through our transboundary water agreements to monitor, continue to collect the data, look at the flow rates that are flowing into the Northwest Territories, and use that as an assessment tool as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, recognizing that 24 million cubic metres a year might be removed from the water system, can the Minister commit to crunching the numbers and letting us know in the House what that might look like for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, water certainly is an area that's top of mind to me. I recently had a number of conversations with the Minister in Alberta and certainly, you know, we will continue to monitor the situation, monitor the flow of water into the Northwest Territories, and continue to report that data in our regular reporting process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
