Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We own that particular piece of property and we'll have to confirm if there would be any taxes that might be having to be paid to the Yukon Government, but I will confirm that and I will share it with the committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, a decision had to be made on this, and there was a timeline attached to it so the decision was made to use a special warrant. As far as special warrants go, in future, with your indulgence I will have Mr. Aumond speak to that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I apologize to the Member. We appreciate the questions that came beforehand; I'm just waiting for responses to come back. I'll just pull up my briefing note here and wing it, and if I wing it long enough, the responses might be down.

---Laughter

The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board set the security amounts, and the GNWT can provide information to the board on the recommended amounts. The GNWT, I can assure you, was very active in the most recent water licensing process that took place since devolution, and made recommendations to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board that security amounts should be increased. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was no financial security associated with the lease, which was issued by Canada before devolution. Even though the GNWT still holds the surface lease, Canada has accepted the responsibility to remediate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We have been very fortunate in the last number of years where we have received infrastructure money from Ottawa. We had the Building Canada Plan from a few years back that put over $245 million into the Northwest Territories. A lot of that money flowed to the communities. The communities actually did a very good job with the projects. Through the New Building Canada Plan, we had $258 million booked for the Northwest Territories. Out of that, $38.4 million was allocated to the communities. The rest of the money actually went into our transportation projects. We just approved bundle 2, and we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will have to confirm and see if we're legally allowed to do that. Thank you.

We have to take into account the fact that we've already done the Formula Funding Review, and that was work that we accelerated during the life of the 17th Assembly. That was actually supposed to start at the beginning of the 18th, but we felt that it was important that we identify what the communities would need and then, at the beginning of the 18th Assembly, or during the life of the 18th Assembly, see if we can come up with plans to fund some of the funding shortfalls that were identified. We have to recognize, though, in our challenging fiscal situation, and with the rest of the mandate...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when Canada signed rights to all securities held for the interests that transferred to the GNWT during devolution, the GNWT became aware that the Reclamation Security Agreement that had been approved by the INAC Minister included promissory notes that were backed by the Mactung property. Thank you, Mr. Chair.