Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
No. That answers that question. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Further comments or questions, page 310? Seeing none, moving on to page 311. Active positions. Do I have comments or questions on page 311? Seeing none, return to planning and coordination, operations expenditure summary, page 309. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions. I noticed "land use sustainability" has gone up but the other areas have gone down. Could the Minister explain why the increase in this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you. Ms. Hilderman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The increase is due to two internal reallocations. One is $50,000 contributions that previously we had under the line item for Land Use Planning unit and $202,000 reallocation of contracts-based funding.
Thank you, Ms. Hilderman. Ms. Hilderman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to be a little more specific on that and the $202,000, $142,000 was reallocated from the Land Use Planning unit and $60,000 from Land Use Planning and Sustainability, which is the unit that the director and their support staff are in. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Hilderman. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank Ms. Hilderman for answering that question because it answers two other ones I had. I am good with this page. Thank you, Mr. Chair. No more further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Further comments or questions, page 309? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Those questions, they bring up a question for me. Are we taking money then away from Land Use Planning and putting it into Land Use Sustainability? As I understand it, one of the parts of our mandate was to ensure that we have completed a land use plans maybe even at the end of our four-year term. I am just trying to figure out how reallocating money away from land use planning into land use sustainability is going to help us accomplish that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister. Ms. Hilderman.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Member's question. When we came into being April 1, 2014, we had zero base, the Department of Lands. There were some areas where it was our best estimates what the base requirements might be. In the case of those reallocations between those three units for the contracts-based funding, it is more that we just didn't get it right. These reallocations are about funding the right unit within land use planning and sustainability. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Hilderman. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, and I appreciate it. We are dealing with labels on a page, which really don't translate into very much. I guess what I am most concerned about is the reduction overall from 7.3 in the mains in 2015-16 down to $6.8 million this year. That is why I guess I am asking these sorts of questions. Why the overall reduction in this part of the Lands department? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this was, again, part of the reduction exercises. For the actual details of the reductions, I can provide that to the Members if they wish. I could read it off here, but it is a fairly long list. I can provide this information to the Members so they can see exactly what the reductions are. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. I know I am the only thing standing between us and dinner. Happy to get that in writing from the Minister. I did have one other question though if I could. Going back to the Minister's opening remarks, he talks about, in his opening remarks, the amalgamation of the liabilities of the financial assurances division and the project assessment branch -- and that is, I think, the section of Lands we are talking about here -- and how there can be some policies and procedures developed, particularly around the area of securities. I keep asking about this stuff. Any progress on this? We have enough money in the budget to make this happen? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
I will have Ms. Hearn respond to that, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Hearn.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will be providing a full briefing on the status of the securities group next week, including some of the background materials that are of interest to Members. Generally we are trying to take advantage of similar skill sets between both groups. We did unfortunately have a slow start to LAFA, the liabilities and financial assurances division. We had a lot of difficulty in finding the specialized people we needed for the job descriptions as they were written, so we've gone back to first principles, which is really dealing with some of the issues that were identified by the Commissioner on Environment and Sustainable Development in the federal government, with Canada's management of securities in the Northwest Territories. So we're moving forward on those issues. We should hopefully have staffing completed by the end of the summer, but meantime we're sort of using expertise from the project assessment branch to do some of the basic securities work, including continued internal engagement on the guidelines. We can provide a full briefing next week that has been scheduled for Tuesday. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Hearn. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm very happy to hear that and I look forward to the meeting on Tuesday. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Further comments or questions? Page 309. Seeing none. We'll call the page. Planning and coordination, operations expenditure summary, activity total, $6,827,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Committee agrees. We have an information item on 312, lease commitments. Questions, comments, on page 312? Uncontroversial page. Moving on to page 313, work performed on behalf of others, another information item. Comments or questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just so I understand this, the entire budget for the Surface Rights Board is coming from the feds, and how long is that going to last for? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. It comes from the feds, and it will go on forever. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I've never heard that kind of a promise from a Minister before, so I'm glad to get it. I just don't know what these guys are actually going to do, because I just don't know how many disputes there are actually going to be in terms of surface rights. I know they have some policy development and stuff to do, but I'm just not sure what they're going to do. I'm on record as suggesting that the legislation that was passed by the federal government is not a co-management approach and I'm hoping that we would move towards that direction ourselves. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Comments from the Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the less work that they have to do, the better, I think. And we don't have to pay for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. O'Reilly? I'm seeing nothing. Page 313. Seeing none. We can move back to page 295, total department summary. Final comments or questions on the Department of Lands, page 295? I'll give committee a moment. Seeing nothing, we'll call the department. Lands, total department, $28,253,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Does committee agree we've completed consideration of the Department of Lands?
Agreed.
I want to thank the Minister and your witnesses for appearing before us. Sergeant-at-Arms, you may escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses.
To my right, we have deputy minister Russ Neudorf, and on my left is assistant deputy minister Jayleen Robertson.
Thank you, Minister. Thank you to the witnesses for joining us. We'll now proceed to consider the detail for the Department of Transportation. The department total is on page 405; we'll defer that until we consider the detail. Beginning on page 406, an information item titled the revenue summary. Do we have comments or questions on page 406, revenue summary? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, under the regulatory revenue, the line item noted as airports, landing and other fees, there is a significant increase from the previous couple of years by nearly $3 million. Can the department please provide an explanation for the increase? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The big increase on that line is due to the Yellowknife Airport's introduction of the airport improvement fees. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So what type of fee was being calculated in order to show this $3 million increase? Can the department explain a little bit more on the fees and the rate structure for the Yellowknife airport fee structure? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
