Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I spoke about a number of issues I believe the Department of Lands is facing. In general, I think the theme was that we have a lot of work giving land back, whether it be to Indigenous governments, residents, companies, or municipalities. My first question for the Minister of Lands is: can I get an update on the mandate commitment to have a process guide for transferring land to municipalities by winter 2021? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. I did have the opportunity to meet with a number of the Yellowknife MLAs and talked about it. We have a draft process that we are working on. We shared it with the City of Yellowknife, but we are now finalizing it. We will hope to have it within this session.
I do believe that is a mandate commitment that is well ahead of schedule, so I congratulate the Minister on that. However, Mr. Speaker, the process guide is really only the first step. It is how and when we will transfer the land that matters, so what I am looking for in order to stop asking this question of the Minister repeatedly is: can I get a firm date when we expect the land transfer to the City of Yellowknife to be completed?
The Department of Lands is very much committed to transfer vacant land to the City of Yellowknife or any municipality that wishes it. Unfortunately, I cannot give a firm date because it depends on a number of things, the City of Yellowknife, our Indigenous governments, as we try to work forward. It is about working together. If we need to, we will address small parcels of lands or projects moving forward right now.
I do believe that, if we cannot get a firm date based on the process guide, then some work needs to be done. Mr. Speaker, I recognize that one of the solutions with land transfer is to break it down into smaller parcels. I am glad to hear the Minister say that. I spoke today in my statement about Deninu Kue First Nation trying to build an RV park on interim land that requires one of the largest land claims in Canada to be settled before they can build an RV park. Mr. Speaker, I believe there is a disconnect between these problems. Is the Minister willing to create a similar process for transferring land to Indigenous governments outside of the formal land claim process?
Mr. Speaker, the department is able to transfer land to Indigenous governments, much like it does to any applicants for public land. When the Indigenous government is interested in acquiring land, their corporation or the business arm of their organization needs to submit their lease application moving forward.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That answer almost had everything, and then he said, "lease application." What I am looking for is a process guide to transfer land in fee simple. Is the Minister willing to do that? I am sick of leases. I want to transfer and provide some certainty to our Indigenous governments, to our municipalities. Is the Minister willing to create a process document for land in fee simple or Aboriginal title, whatever it may be?
The Member is probably going to not like my answer: no. We are working with the municipalities, and we are working with Indigenous governments. We need to work through a consultation process. I just spent the last two hours with an Indigenous government actually talking about this process. We are working with everybody to try to resolve this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
