Mr. Chair, I don’t quite understand where the Member is going. Is he talking about lands that we had administered or is he talking on a go-forward basis? If this is on a go-forward basis, on a go-forward basis the board will set the security on the advice of government and it will hold money for them.
Are you talking, like, on Commissioner’s land that we had administered in the past? There was security that, on recommendation, could have been required on potentially any lease that we had out there, including cabin leases, but I don’t think it was something that was done regularly. Now, on a go-forward basis, knowing that is has become a fairly serious issue, and with the amount of land that we are going to be administering, then we need to make sure that securities are required, and they are set by the board and we will hold the money. Thank you.
I think the difficulty is that the administration, the legislation that we’re adopting does not make that requirement clear. That’s how the federal government had to accept $8 billion in liability for largely northern mines because of a failure to hold security for those mines.
In contrast, I think we have a requirement now in the Commissioner’s Land Act on Commissioner’s land. So that is a different situation, as the Minister was saying. Given that right now it sounds like we’re at the mercy of the board on whether they assess financial security or not, the need for financial security or not as opposed to having the strength of a legislative tool such as the Commissioner’s Land Act which requires that… I guess that’s my understanding and maybe I will leave it at that, unless there is more to be said by the Minister. I guess I would hope that I would hear the Minister say that if we don’t have that certainty, we are going to pursue it and we can legitimately do so. I will leave it at that.
Just in terms of our inspections, I see we have a diamond resource management inspection capability, but I don’t see that for other mines. It is not mentioned for other mines. We seem to have our own diamond resource management section for inspections. Maybe it is covered in resource management. Could I get some clarity – I know the Minister was planning to bump up our mine inspection capabilities – on what is happening there for all mining activity, and I will leave it at that.
One second, Mr. Chairman.
We will go to the deputy minister, Mr. Warren.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You are correct that we are required to do inspections on other mines and it is part of the inspection process, and depending on the sophistication of the mines we would have RMO 3, so resource management officer 3 levels doing those inspections.
AANDC currently organizes themselves to have a separate unit to do diamond mines just because of the need to do multiple inspections per month on those mines because of how sophisticated the mines are and how complex they are. They have dedicated senior inspectors in each of those, but I get the Member’s point that we should be clear that we also have inspectors for doing other mines. Each region would have a senior inspector that is capable of doing other mine inspections as well.
Thank you, Mr. Warren. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps that’s something else we can talk about during our briefing on the new department.
With the additional inspectors and the additional responsibility, we know that our land base is up considerably here, it’s a lot more work, an order of magnitude in possible enforcement activities and so on. During the review with Justice, we didn’t see much response in anticipation of this. Has the department worked with Justice to get recognition that there is a lot more inspectors, there could be a lot more legal work here as a result of infractions and so on? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I take the Member’s point that when we go into business planning next year, we can look at how we…even some of the wording that we use in the operations of diamond resource management and all that, it is a discussion that we could have.
As far as the enforcement, we do plan on having a very aggressive enforcement, as I said in my opening comments, because we believe that we are going to be inheriting, well we got 940,000 square kilometres that we are going to be responsible for compared to I believe it was 2,400 before. In those 940,000 square kilometres there are a lot of issues that we will have to deal with, squatters and so on, so we will make sure that our inspection regime… I think in my appearance before Committee of the Whole, the last time I was here with MACA when it still had lands, I mentioned a couple of times that we are picking up our inspection and enforcement regime and I believe during deliberation for the Department of Justice the other day, they were talking about bringing on five additional people to deal with a lot of the responsibility that might be coming over with devolution and if we have to go out and start enforcing a lot of the land issues. So we won’t know until we actually get past April 1st the extent of what we’re inheriting as far as our inspection goes, but I do know that on the MACA side of it, when the land was there, the enforcement was picking up. I think we added a couple of PYs in the last two budget cycles. So I believe we’re getting prepared and we’re not sure, I don’t think we’ll have a full understanding of the scope of what we’re inheriting until we actually get out there and start doing the inspections on our new land and the enforcement. We’ll see how things go the first little while. I believe we’re prepared, though, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee, we’re on 14-21. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just my last question here. In terms of oil and gas, obviously a big impact on the land, any role of this department?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’re going to go to Deputy Minister Warren.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the department does have a role because we’re responsible as the stewards of the land. So any activity that takes place on the land, we would be responsible. We wouldn’t be responsible for the particular inspection of an oil rig or something, but to the extent that there’s an activity happening on the land, generally we would be responsible and we would coordinate inspections with the other inspectors that are out there whether they’re…(inaudible)…or ENR inspectors.
Thank you. Just related to that, in terms of the conservation, ultimately we’re talking sustainability here, and I think that’s a pillar in this department. How would that be brought in to all of this?
Thank you. Operations is primarily responsible for the land administration functions and the inspection functions. The sustainability elements are going to be brought in more through the sustainability division and land use planning and others, but to the extent that there are activities taking place on the land that impact upon our ability to be sustainable into the future, that would be reported out through the inspection processes that take place here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Warren. Committee, again, we are on 14-21, activity summary operations, operations expenditure summary, $10.486 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 14-22, information item, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 14-25, activity summary, informatics, operations expenditure summary, $6.334 million.
Agreed.
Page 14-26, information item, informatics, activity positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
And 14-27, information item, work performed on behalf of others. Any questions?
Agreed.
Committee, if I could get you to return back to 14-7, Lands, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $26.830 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that consideration of the Department of Lands is completed?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. I’d like to thank the witnesses here, Ms. Hilderman, Mr. Warren, thank you for joining us today. Looking forward to a good year, and Minister McLeod, thank you very much. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you could please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.
What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Mr. Chair, I move that we report progress.
---Carried
Good evening. Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015, and would like to report progress with one motion being adopted. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Do I have a seconder? Mr. Ramsay.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, there will be a meeting of the Standing Committee on Social Programs tomorrow morning at 7:30.
Orders of the day for Tuesday, March 4, 2014, at 1:30 p.m.:
Prayer
Ministers’ Statements
Members’ Statements
Returns to Oral Questions
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Acknowledgements
Oral Questions
Written Questions
Returns to Written Questions
Replies to Opening Address
Petitions
Reports of Standing and Special Committees
Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
Tabling of Documents
Notices of Motion
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
Motions
First Reading of Bills
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Tabled Document 4-17(5), Northwest Territories Electoral Boundaries Commission 2013 Final Report
Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2014-2015
Tabled Document 44-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2013-2014
Tabled Document 45-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2014-2015
Tabled Document 51-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2012-2013
Tabled Document 52-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2013-2014
Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Motor Vehicles Act
Bill 10, Northwest Territories Lands Act
Bill 11, Petroleum Resources Act
Bill 13, Devolution Measures Act
Bill 14, Waters Act
Committee Report 2-17(5), Report on the Review of the 2012-2013 Public Accounts
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the Day
Thank you, Madam Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Tuesday, March 4th, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 8:53 p.m.
