Thank you, Minister. Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. The Minister has touched on one of the criteria that we will obviously be using to evaluate, is whether or not they can be moved in a reasonable manner in a location, not to a new location itself, but within the current proximity to where it is. Again, that is always going to be premised with the need to go out to consultation in advance of that, so even the idea that it could be moved still may not be enough to meet the criteria that we will be establishing. The other piece to this is that, through our notice process, we will be giving individuals the opportunity to deconstruct or remove, whatever it may be, and so fundamentally, we will be following the legal process and if they choose to remove that, then that makes it less of a burden on the taxpayers, obviously.
Ultimately, if they choose not to and they fight this and we go through the legal process, we will take over control and ownership of the assets and we will need to remove them. We may take a variety of different avenues at that point in time, which could include things like having an auction to remove some of these and/or ultimately going after the individual for costs associated with the removal. There are a couple of different legal steps that could be deployed, but again, each one will be case specific. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. One of the earlier speakers mentioned the elimination of the equity lease administration line for 2021-2022. This was a program that was announced with much fanfare by the previous Minister and was supposed to go on for I think five years. Is this ending early, and have all of those leases been inspected now and they've all been transferred to fee simple ownership? Is that what has happened? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
It is being sunsetted, so it is done. The funding of the program has been sunsetted. As for the number of leases or equity leases out there, I think the deputy minister talked about a number of them already going through the process, but all of them, no. They are not all done, but we are able to provide services from our existing staff to fulfil that mandate to complete that task. The task has not completely been completed, but we are working to get that done. For further clarity, if I missed anything, with your permission, I will ask the assistant deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Minister has stated, we are in the process of trying to work through these. I think one of the questions the Member had asked is whether or not inspections had been completed at all of the various leases. Yes, they have been, on all the parcels, so we had all that work completed by end of summer/fall of 2020. We have that information, that baseline data that is on each and every file. We have gone out with letters to the existing lessees to notify them of getting into the next stage of this process, which would be potentially moving toward fee simple title, which will, again, as I mentioned earlier, involve the process of consultation with our various Indigenous governments and organizations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can someone just give me a rough figure? Like have 50 percent of these been converted now to fee simple title, or 10 percent, or 3 percent? Can I just get a rough figure of how many of these equity leases have actually been converted to fee simple title? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
For that detail, I'll turn the floor to the assistant deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we've sent out 150 letters to the lessees in this process, to which we have heard responses, as of earlier today, from 46, and we will now be moving toward fee simple with those individuals. Not everyone who we've engaged with seems to be as eager as others. There are some who are certainly moving much more quickly than others. When it comes down to the specific that the Member has asked, the question of how many have transferred to date, we have transferred only one at this point in time, but a lot of that is due to a variety of different aspects that are within the lessees' control, as well as our own, to move through the land titles process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I'll move on now, too. Can the Minister tell me whether there is any funding in here for inspection and remediation of Cameron Hills? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail, I'll ask Assistant Deputy Minister Chapman to respond. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of our ongoing budget, we do provide for inspection services in the South Slave, and so we have our regular inspections at Cameron Hills or in other locations where there is activity going on. We do have that as part of our ongoing affairs, year in and year out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Is there any funding in here for remediation work at Cameron Hills? I understand that the property is in bankruptcy and there is still a court-appointed receiver, but it is certainly heading our way. Do we record a contingent liability anywhere in the department for the remediation that is required there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For that detail, I'll turn to Mr. Chapman. Thank you.
Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, there is nothing in our existing or current budget for remediation. While this operator is certainly under court-monitored protection at this point in time, we are not at a stage where we have determined what the final outcome will be, and so fundamentally, until that point in time, we have not submitted for any form of remediation costs associated with that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'll get a little bit more technical here. Where would a contingent liability then be? It's not found anywhere in the main estimates. Is it recorded in the public accounts somehow? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail, I'm going to have to go to the deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the best of my knowledge, we haven't booked a liability because, again, there is an operator in place. I understand the Member's concern where this is potentially going, but until such time that the decision is finally made and the outcome is clear, we are not in a position at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I understand that whoever is left in charge of the property, I guess the receiver, has to submit some plans to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for remediation by March 31st. Is the department aware of the status of that work, and is there an expectation that it is going to be submitted and that we are going to review it and participate in that process? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail, I will need to ask the assistant deputy minister to respond. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am unaware of what work the receiver has completed to date. At this point in time, they haven't chaired that, to the best of my knowledge, with ourselves. They are working with the court-appointed process and working through that process, but until that point in time, we are still awaiting some outcome from that decision. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm just more than a little bit disappointed that whoever is in charge of the property hasn't bothered to consult or talk to the GNWT about what the remediation plans are at this point because it's heading our way. Look, I'm going to be here asking these questions next year, and I suspect, by then, this property is going to be on our books. A fair heads-up to my colleague on the other side, I will be asking these questions again a year from now. Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's all I have. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. I will go to the Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is on page 316. If you add up the headquarters in North Slave, it increased by two, and the South Slave increased by two in employees. Then you said that the equity lease employees were eliminated at regional centres. These equity lease employees, were they term employees?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
For that detail, I would have to ask the assistant deputy minister to answer that. Thank you.
Mr. Chapman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the process of hiring for the equity lease project, we had, at various times, as many as five people working on that project. They were placed in those positions through a variety of different mechanisms. Some were hired as term employees originally, for as long as three-year terms, because that was the funding that was provided on the project. During that period of time that they were hired, as we look back, the Union of Northern Workers agreement was negotiated. It made some significant changes to how we manage employees. Any employees over 24 months were required to be hired on an indeterminate basis, so we transitioned two of those employees to indeterminate employees at that point in time. They transitioned from term to indeterminate. The remaining employees were in other positions within the department, and we deployed them through another mechanism, a transfer assignment, to those project-specific jobs that they were hired for. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chapman. Member.
Mr. Chair, were these P1 employees?
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. For that detail, I will have to ask Mr. Chapman if he has that. If he doesn't, we will provide that to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
