This is more of a comment here. I look forward to working with the Minister as we go through the budget deliberations on funding allocations to support this foundation. Mahsi.
Masi. Comment to the Executive. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to follow up with the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I think I heard him say earlier today in response to one of my questions that our government has simply applied to the Yukon government for a renewal of a land-use approval that is already in existence. I did check the land-use approval that we had with the Government of the Yukon. It is LQ00253B. It ran from February 4, 2016 to December 21, 2018, so it has actually expired. Can the Minister tell us again: has our government actually applied for a renewal or a new permit for the work that is to take place at the Mactung site? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I assume the Member is talking about the quartz-mining land-use approval process in the Yukon. If I am correct, that has been in place for a long time. That exact permit has been in place since 2014, Mr. Speaker. Before that, it has been in place since 2009.
I want to thank the Minister for that. I did check the Yukon quartz-mining land-use approval application that was submitted on behalf of our government by Tetra Tech. There is a box in there that says that it is actually a new permit that is being applied for. I will share that with the Minister. I want to quote from the supporting package. It says, "There is currently no formal plan to carry out the activities proposed. The GNWT is seeking a quartz-mining land-use approval in part as a means of increasing the appeal of the Mactung property to prospective buyers."
Can the Minister tell us: is it the intention of our government to actually carry out any exploration, or is this really a play to try to hype up the value of the property?
I would like to remind Members that that information is not readily available for the Minister to view. If you can, reiterate your question to the Minister, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to know from the Minister: is it the intention of our government to actually carry out any exploration work at the Mactung property?
Mr. Speaker, as I've said, this renewal is required by our government to maintain the site. We have to have access to our claims and our leases for any type of activity there. The permit includes approvals for more than just exploration. It covers monitoring activities, remediation, ongoing clean-up, like the work that we did last year at site, and the value is needed for us to keep this permit in place.
It is my understanding through media reports that the Yukon Conservation Society has raised concerns about the speculative nature of this land-use approval application. Can the Minister confirm whether this is being done to increase the value of the property?
As I have clearly said in this House already a number of times today, this is clearly a necessity for us to be able to continue with our permitting process for this property, and, if we do not renew this quartz-mining land-use approval, the Yukon Government can tell us to remediate this site. That is not going to add value to us trying to sell this site and do what we are trying to do for residents in the Northwest Territories, is try to bring another mine on-stream for residents of the NWT so we have jobs, revenue, and the best potential of this site, being non-competitive with the Cantung property if they were separate.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again for that. Presumably, if we were able to sell this site and the new owner were to take it over, why wouldn't the new owner apply for a quartz-mining land-use approval? Why are we doing it now?
We are the owners of this property right now, and, if we want to continue on activities of this site, we have to renew this permit. We don't know how long this process is going to take place. We have engaged with the federal government. We have agreed to look at selling these two pieces of property together to get the best potential from both sites by doing them at once. We will continue to work towards that, and we think that this is in the best interest of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, I seconded by the honourable Member for the Sahtu, that Committee Report 11-18(3), Report on the Review of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 NWT Human Rights Commission Annual Reports, be deemed read and printed in Hansard in its entirety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Masi. Reports of standing and special committees. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Committee Report 11-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 of the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission Annual Reports, be received and adopted by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Development has reviewed Bill 32, Naturopathic Profession Statutes Amendment Act, and wishes to report that Bill 32 is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates, 2019-2020, and would like to start with the Department of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The committee will consider the document after a very brief recess. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates 2019-2020. The Minister of Finance, I understand, does not have opening remarks, so we will move right into the department that we have agreed to consider, the Department of Justice. Does the Minister of Justice have any opening remarks? Minister Sebert.
Yes, thank you, I do. I am pleased to present the 2019-2020 Main Estimates for the Department of Justice. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of just over $3 million, or 2.4 percent, over the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.
Highlights of the proposed estimates include:
$1.389 million in forced-growth funding to provide the RCMP with increased capacity to cover the costs of officer participation in new and existing training initiatives and related administrative costs;
$179,000 in forced-growth funding to enable the Legal Aid Commission to add a new full-time criminal defence lawyer position in response to rising workloads in this area;
$171,000 to cover a 1 percent wage increase for non-unionized employees;
$308,000 in federal funding to support investments related to the legalization of cannabis in the Northwest Territories;
$269,000 to increase the department's capacity to support GNWT departments in responding to access and privacy matters in a more consistent and efficient manner; and
$124,000 to support the establishment of a manager position within the Legal Aid Commission to address operational pressures.
These estimates continue to support the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly by:
implementing improvements to corrections programming, including the development of enhanced culturally appropriate programming and working with our community partners to support inmates with their reintegration back into their communities;
supporting the RCMP and communities to strengthen partnerships;
implementing innovative ways to prevent and reduce crime; and
supporting initiatives and partnerships to prevent and reduce family violence.
That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, please.
Thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the Minister's witnesses into the Chamber.
Minister Sebert, please introduce your witnesses to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Mandi Bolstad, director of corporate services. To my right is Martin Goldney, the deputy minister of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Welcome to the witnesses. It has been a while since we have been Committee of the Whole, so I will just remind everyone to let us know when you are finished talking so that our tech team can change the mics. Just say "thank you," and the team will know to change the mics, and all exchange goes through myself as chair.
Committee, we earlier agreed to forego opening comments. If that is still the wish of committee, we can begin with the Department of Justice detail. The department itself begins on page 264 of the document, and the first item is community justice and policing, found on page 271. Does committee have questions on community justice and policing? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have questions on page 268, the revenue summary. Is that a page that we are going to go back to? Thank you.
Thank you. The plan was to go through each activity, and then, when we go back to the departmental total, we can consider the org charts, the revenue summaries, et cetera, in the opening portion of the document. Is that acceptable to committee?
Agreed.
Thank you. Was there anything on community justice and policing, Ms. Green?
Yes, thank you. This seems like a good time to ask the Minister again about community approaches to sexual assault reporting and sexual assault charges that can be reviewed. Last week he didn't have any answers to these questions about when or how this would happen, and I am wondering if he has been able to obtain more information that he would like to share with us now. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister Sebert.
Thank you. I don't know if I have anything really new than the information that I provided in the House last week. We are, of course, aware about how important this issue is, and we are continuing to work with the RCMP with respect to this matter. Of course, this arose out of a report in 2017 in the Globe and Mail and led to questions about this whole issue, not only in this House, but across Canada, and the police have made efforts. In December 2017 the police released the results of their national review in a document called "The Way Forward," and this included actions to make the police more sensitive and aware, if I can put it that way, through training, to sexual assaults. So work is continuing in this important area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
