Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. There's a number of reductions on this page that I'm wondering about. Program management and administration is down, I don't know, maybe $150,000. Land Use Administration is down over $100,000. Resource Management is down almost or over $300,000 from last year.
What's the rationale for these reductions, and how will that impact our ability to manage lands, stuff that we've inherited under devolution? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think the total reduction was $636,000 if I am not mistaken. It was for utilities, fuel costs for inspections program, restricted base funding for inspection response to spills. We withdrew a couple of positions. Then these Commissioner’s senior lands officers function in headquarters, we have reduced it from five to three positions. I think that is the total of the $636,000. Then we have one sunset of $80,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister refreshing my mind on some of those. What impact will it have on our ability to manage and inspect lands? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think we still will have the capacity to carry out our inspections as we have done in the past. If you recall from MACA lands days, before it was converted over, one of the questions we kept getting was the amount of inspectors we had. I think since Lands has been formed, we have -- I am not sure of the exact number. I can get them, as far as our inspector division goes. We have a fairly robust inspection division that is adequately staffed. I will confirm that information, and I will share it with committee.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The expenditure category there, there is a significant reduction for travel, and I think the Minister may have explained that in terms of reduced fuel costs and so on. Is that the case for the reduction there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
I am going to have to apologize to Mr. O'Reilly. I didn't quite hear the question. I apologize for that.
Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.
Mr. Chair. Is a reduction in the travel line below? I think the Minister talked about a reduced fuel expenditure. Is that the explanation for the reduced travel there? I guess what I am asking is, I want to make sure that our staff have the ability to travel to do the work to properly manage and inspect the lands that we have inherited. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the fuel shows up under utilities, just below travel. There was a restricted base funding for inspection response to be filled was a $250,000 that the Member would have noted under travel. We still have a fairly healthy budget. I think there is not much happening out there on the water side of it. So inspection requirements may not be as high as they are, but we still have folks out on inspection. I think we have 28 total across the Department of Lands and all the regions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
That is all the questions I have. Thank you.
Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had one question I didn't ask. With the affected employees, were any of those positions, are they federal transfers, or were they existing GNWT employees when they started out? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
I don't have that level of detail right now, but I will provide it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
I thank the Minister for the commitment to get that information to me. Some of the concerns out there was that it was the staff when they amalgamated became staff that was long-serving territorial employees and not new employees coming in from the feds. I said I would ask the question during this process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we actually have some from the GNWT that were affected. Also some of the federal employees were affected as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I thank the Minister for that answer. Just clarifying some rumours out there. It is better to get information on the floor, so people are aware of it. I thank the Minister, and I have no further questions at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one, kind of, general question relative to this area: during the business planning review, the committee of economic development and environment made the suggestion at the time that the department take meaningful steps to harmonize the Commissioner's Land and Territorial Lands Act. I wonder if the Minister can comment with regard to the department's intention on giving that consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I said before that, where possible, we will make some amendments that might need to be made right away. I think the overall amalgamation of the two acts is going to be a very large piece of work. We will be more than happy to provide committee an update. As I committed to Member Beaulieu, we would be more than happy to give committee an update with all the work that we have going on, including an update on the Commissioner and Territorial Lands Act. It is going to be a huge undertaking.
What we would like to do is try to get some amendments in there to help us as we go forward, with the understanding that eventually we are going to amalgamate the two Acts. As I said before, the preliminary work might start during the life of this Assembly, but I think it is going to be a future Assembly that is probably going to take on the bulk of the work, because it will be a huge piece of legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Seeing nothing further, do I have further comments on questions on page 305? Seeing none, I will call the page. Lands, operations, operations expenditure summary, activity total: $11,282,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
We will move on to planning and coordination. The activity total is on page 309. We can discuss the detail on page 310. Comments or questions on page 310? Planning and coordination, grants, contributions. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. There were a number of reductions on this page. Just wondering how those were decided upon. These are contributions that are given out to different Aboriginal governments, communities and so on, to, I think, engage in some of our processes. So how were the reductions made? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this would probably have been a result of our overall reduction exercise. If we find in the future we need to allocate these type of dollars again, then we can make some adjustments in the future, but it is part of our overall reduction exercise. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just so I understand it, you have 2015-2016 Main Estimates here. Then there are the revised estimates, looks like there are no changes made. Do we know how fully subscribed those programs were in 2015-16? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the quick answer is they weren't fully subscribed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't want to prolong this, but could maybe the Minister or the staff get back and let me know what the year ends were for 2015-16 for those programs? They can do that offline. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I said, they weren't fully subscribed to, which is correct. I actually have the number here. I thought I would try, "They weren't fully subscribed to" first. The actual number is $546,000. They still weren't fully subscribed to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my question is whether the Minister can tell me about the role that Lands is playing in the establishment of the Thaidene Nene Park and how that is reflected on this page?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is just part of the business of lands. We provide information and support to the department of ENR. There is no particular line item for it. It is just part overall of our operation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
