Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Are there any more comments? Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $110,000.
Agreed.
Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, administrative and support services, not previously authorized, $110,000.
Agreed.
Thank you to the committee for your patience. We'll move on to the next page. Page eight. Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investment expenditures, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, negative $65,000.
Agreed.
Industry, Tourism and Investment, capital investment expenditures, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized, $65,000.
Agreed.
We'll move on to the next page. This is on page nine: Lands, capital investment expenditures, operations, special warrants, $4.5 million. Mr. O’Reilly.
Sorry, Mr. Chair, I'm trying to do two or three things at the same time. I apologize. I didn't really understand how we were going to go through this step-by-step, but if the Minister has his notes now that would be really helpful. I'll just skip through to the second question I had which is: Are there any liabilities associated with the Mactung property? I want to preface this because I was actually at Mile 222 of the Canol Road in the summer of 1981. Amax had a camp there, and they had a trailer. I understood that there was a tote road pushed into the property in the '70s, early '80s. There was drilling going on. There was a trailer, fuel storage possibly, at the site. I'm just wondering if there are any environmental liabilities associated with that property. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Mactung is an exploration site. It's not a mine site, and the part of Mactung that was actively used in exploration is in the Yukon Territory. Our GNWT Department of Lands inspectors, we don't have the jurisdiction to conduct inspection in the Yukon. Any inspections would fall under the responsibility of the Yukon Territorial Government. Thank you.
Mr. O’Reilly.
I understand that a good part of the claims work is on the Yukon side, the mineral claims, but can the Minister send somebody out to the site to have a look at the Northwest Territories side to confirm that there are no liabilities and could he report that back to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.I will commit to having our folks from Lands go and inspect our side of the border, and check to see if there are any liabilities, and we will report back to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
I do appreciate the commitment there from the Minister. I just want to make sure that there aren't any liabilities there. My next question is: was the GNWT aware that North American Tungsten had posted a $5 million promissory note as part of its financial security for the Cantung Mine? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister McLeod.
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.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. My next question is: after we took over the jurisdiction for securities with devolution April 1, 2014, did the GNWT take any actions to transform that promissory note into a more secure form of financial assurance? If I could just talk a little bit about that. A promissory note is just a letter saying that somebody is going to promise to pay somebody some money. A much more secure form would be something called an irrevocable letter of credit, which is issued by a chartered bank. You give that to a bank and the bank pushes the cash across the counter. That's a much more secure form of financial assurance. Did we do anything to get a more secure form of financial assurance out of North American Tungsten when we had the watch of the Cantung Mine? Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Reclamation Contract and Security Agreement is a contractual arrangement that laid out the provision of how the promissory notes would be progressively converted into cash. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Could the Minister make available a copy of the contractual arrangement, even if he has to do it in confidence. I would be really curious to see it. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Would the Minister be willing to make that available to the member? Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will have to confirm and see if we're legally allowed to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to move on. It's my understanding the GNWT may still hold the surface lease for the Cantung Mine. Can the Minister confirm that?
Minister McLeod.
Yes, that is correct. We have surface leases for the Cantung Mine.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
MR. O’REILLY: How much financial security is held under the surface lease, and what form is it held in? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister. McLeod.
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.
Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The reason why I raise this is we had a similar situation for another mine further down the road from Yellowknife called Giant Mine, where the GNWT had a surface lease, for that property and we incurred some liability as a result of that, because there was no financial security required under that surface lease. I’m just wondering, can the Minister then tell me what the outstanding reclamation liabilities are for Cantung, and whether we actually still have any exposure as a result of a surface lease? Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, much like Giant Mine, Canada has accepted the responsibility to remediate this site as far as the liabilities go. I will work with my Department of Lands, and confirm and have them identify some of the liabilities, and I will share that information with committee. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. I am just wondering, when the GNWT took over the jurisdiction post-devolution, did we make any efforts to get the water licence security for Cantung increased? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
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.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess that's my point here, that we don't actually have to wait for the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board to make a determination. We can actually make a submission directly to the board at any time, it doesn't have to be a water license renewal, and try to get the security increased at any point to make sure that we're not exposed in any way. That’s my concern, here, that I think some of this happened under our watch, and I want to try to prevent this from happening again. I’m just curious. What kind of involvement did the financial assurances and liabilities division have in the management of financial securities for the Cantung mine?
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the financial assurances and liabilities division was established to help manage and coordinate the GNWT's current responsibilities in the modern integrated resource management regime that we have in the NWT. The financial assurances and liabilities division played an advisory role in the water licensing process that happened with North American Tungsten Company Ltd. was going into insolvency. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the answers from the Minister. Once again, though, I am very concerned that this happened under our watch, part of it, and my objective in asking these questions here today is to show the importance of that division, the work that they do, and I know that they have started this work to get some sort of guidelines, policy framework, in place. They even changed legislation so that there are mandatory requirements for financial security, looking at the forms of the security, and even mandatory requirements for closure plans.
As a smaller government, we just can't afford to not get this right. We are not like the federal government.
Mr. O'Reilly, your time is up, but seeing no one else on my list, I will let you continue.
