Environment committee  Within the Mackenzie River Basin, I believe there are about six sub-basins: the Peace, the Athabasca, the Peel, the Great Slave, the Great Bear, and the Liard.

Environment committee  The Mackenzie River Basin is the big area where the water drains. Within that, there are sub-basins. Right next door, to the east of us, is Hudson Bay.

Environment committee  Zero, that I'm aware of. It has been identified, and a report was released yesterday, which I read yesterday on the plane. There are huge gaps in groundwater mapping, and many jurisdictions. The transboundary agreement leaves out the Mackenzie River Basin. They don't even want to

Environment committee  The transboundary agreement on the Mackenzie River Basin that was signed in 1997 is silent on the issue of groundwater. The one reference in it is that groundwater can be discussed if it's agreed to at the bilateral level between individual provinces or territories. When you lo

Environment committee  Absolutely.

Environment committee  The question, I think, could be phrased this way: how can the federal government not play a role? There are jurisdictions, some with competing interests, conflicting agendas. The federal government played a role when it was originally signed in 1997. It took a considerable number

Environment committee  I went to a conference in Canmore that looked at all these issues. Hydrological monitoring has identified tremendous gaps across the land—right from the headwaters, in every direction from what is hydrologically the highest point in Canada, somewhere just outside of Canmore. Ther

Environment committee  About 70% of the water that comes into the Mackenzie River Basin comes through the Slave River, which for the most part is made up of the Athabasca and the Peace. About 30% comes from the Athabasca and about 70% comes from the Peace River. So we have concerns right from the headw

Environment committee  We have to recognize that there are enormous gaps. The federal government has a few monitoring stations that perform some very basic measurements. But from the headwaters up the Mackenzie to the Arctic Ocean, there's very little monitoring of either the surface water or the surro

Environment committee  Not to my knowledge. We're struggling to sort out the review processes for the pipeline within our own jurisdiction. But that's why we're here. We recognized with the start of this government, the 16th assembly, about a year and a half ago now, that it is a fundamental issue an

Environment committee  I think we have to once again look at that whole range. For example, we were in Whitehorse a few months back and we signed a federal waste water agreement. Most jurisdictions have signed on to that. Of course, implementation will be the challenge. In our jurisdiction, we only ha

Environment committee  Not at this point. This strategy has consumed a significant amount of our resources. We're a small jurisdiction. While we're aware of the pollutants coming out of the air—from industry, coal-fired plants, and major dust storms—it's just another issue on our list. We're trying to

Environment committee  The federal government has some clear responsibilities in our jurisdiction when it comes to issues like water, and I have indicated the legal responsibility. It gets back to the national water strategy and the need for the federal government to play a leadership role to make sur

Environment committee  We're going to need a range of structures, from the community to the national-international level, with all of the different levels being linked vertically and across. We definitely have to recognize the role of the aboriginal governments. In the Northwest Territories, they are o

Environment committee  If you put that agreement on the table and got agreement to open it up, I think it would look substantially different when the process was finished. I don't think any aboriginal government would be content to have the Northwest Territories or Alberta.... I think we have one repre