Shane Thompson

Thank you. And, again, I appreciate the Member's passion on this, and we've had this conversation numerous times. Any land claims or treaty rights establish the process for use of public land, and the GNWT follows that claim. So that is our process, and we've been following that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

First of all, I'd like to thank the Member for the question. We've had this conversation numerous times so I can tell the people of the Northwest Territories she's doing her due diligence in trying to get this information out there.

The department is working with the Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations to distinguish potential rightsbased cabins from unauthorized occupancy and to develop an approach to manage the rightsbased cabins on public land. The department will continue the discussions with Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations that want to engage with us on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I took the heat from the Members on the other side during their business plan and that, and I did bring it forth to raise the concerns with her about the House that development regulations for the release of oil sand tailings need to be transparent and public, and we need to be engaged moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did take some notes from that meeting so I'm just going to read them here.

Mr. Speaker, we spoke about the importance of sharing water our shared water to the NWT residents and the communities. We talked about some of the concerns that residents in the communities have downstream of the oil sands. We spoke about the importance of honouring the commitment of the Bilateral Water Management Agreement. We also spoke about the critical importance of being notified about development that might affect the ecological integrity of our water share. And we spoke...

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to share with you a success story from the Nahendeh riding. 18 years ago, the business arm of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation, Fort Simpson Metis Nation, Nahanni Butte Dene Band, and Sambaa K'e First Nation came together to form Dehcho Regional Helicopters. The core of a business plan was to secure, with their operating partner Great Slave Helicopters, the contract for the helicopter services that supported the Fort Simpson fire base. It is a source of pride for the Dehcho Regional Helicopters Limited partners that every summer, since its...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, March 28th, 2023, I will present Bill 78, Waste Reduction and Resource Recovery Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as stated earlier, we have several processes underway working with Indigenous governments, including regulations for the Public Land Act. Until those processes are completed, the GNWT will continue to lease land in accordance with our Act and regulations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department regulates validation and pricing for all public lands. Leases are required where exclusive use of public land is required. Lease rents are charged to have exclusive usage. Indigenous people are encouraged to selfidentify with the Department of Lands that they are rightsbased land users and within their traditional area if they wish to maintain a camp or a cabin on public land without a tenure. Some Indigenous people prefer to maintain tenure for the benefit associated with such things as exclusive use, being able to sell the improvements and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the first thing is we made the commitment to do the facetoface meeting. That's the important part of it. She has also committed to sharing information on the seepage and spills moving forward. So we'll make sure we have a robust process in getting that information to us. They also agreed that the dispute resolution provision of our bilateral agreement is the right tool to resolve the matter and set a plan to avoid this kind of incident in the future so we're doing dispute mechanism. She has agreed to that. She's looking forward to enhancing the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can advise you that the Alberta Minister recognized that there was a failure to communicate on the issue. There was a lot of finger pointing through this whole process and I can tell you she just found out this February. So she was similar into the same boat as us there. We talked about working together to improve how we implement the transboundary agreement. Again, it's about the wording and that so we've made that commitment to do that. And we've also committed to have a facetoface meeting sometime in April, whether it's the 13th or 18th. We're just...