Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. It's three-year funding for $4.2 million, which includes two PYs. It's a challenge to figure out what the program will actually end up costing. Other jurisdictions, it's been 10 years. We're trying to fast track this, and we think with the LTOS and other developments that ISSS is working on should help us. We know Nunavut just launched theirs. There're a lot of lessons learned because we have very similar mineral tenure systems, so we're going to work closely with Nunavut, as well, during that. I will have to get back to the Member when we see how development goes over the next year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. I look forward for that work. I think it's a long time overdue. Can I get an update? During the last main estimates, there was quite a lot of talk of the eight members in the Beaufort-Delta under this section. I believe now we've added one more, apparently, in this budget, and I believe those were petroleum resource officers. I know there's not a lot of petroleum resource. I believe there was some talk about re-profiling them or making sure the job descriptions align better to making sure they have work to do given the decline of oil and gas in the Delta? Can I get an update, firstly, why did we add one position to that office? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I can certainly go through the details of what is specifically ongoing right now. I'm not seeing that we've added one, but let me just double check that back over with Deputy Minister Strand, please.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I am not aware of adding one. We combined minerals and petroleum into one unit, so we have actually condensed them a bit. Further to the Member's question, we will be looking at synergies with what work those staff can do up there. On top, they've helped with delivery of our prospecting programs, with the regional mineral development strategies for the Gwich'in and the Inuvialuit. The office does remain active with, for example, the Husky forfeiture. They have to review all that work, and it can be quite intensive. We have them working on that, and the active tenure for a lot of the clean-up projects. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps, I could just get a clarification then. I'm looking at page 217, and I see we added one position in the Beaufort-Delta and three to headquarters. I believe the three to headquarters are for the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act implementation, but can I just get confirmation of what the four positions being added to the mineral and petroleum resources unit are for? Page 217. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have, yes, indeed, some coming in for Mineral Resources Act, and one is, I believe, a permafrost scientist coming in that I would believe is being counted here, yes.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Stepping back, the $16 million I see here for mineral and petroleum resources versus the economic diversification and business support, which is $18 million, I think some things are a little out of line in this unit. I struggle to know exactly, especially the petroleum resources side, what they're doing. I heard the deputy minister say there that we're trying to get that unit in Inuvik to work on some of the Husky forfeiture and the remediation work, and I think that's great. I think that's probably the direction of where a lot of our staff have to go. Are there any plans to kind of review this unit and have it capture some of the remediation work that I think has probably a much higher likelihood of economic return for at least the foreseeable future than the petroleum resources side that all the job descriptions currently list them as. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a busy unit. It has a lot going on and across different areas of the department. This is where the socio-economic agreements reside. This will be where the remediation work, the remediation economy resides. This is where the Northwest Territories geological survey resides with all of its scientists. There's actually only a small percentage that is minerals specific. It is quite wide-ranging and quite broad. We have our client services community relations section that's here which supports, in fact, small businesses and small prospectors to take action and to be active in the Northwest Territories.
Again, in the interests of time, I think that's probably a bigger question, but one that, at this point -- again, I'm happy to kind of go through each one at more length, but simply to say that this is really not meant to be. I would not want anyone to walk away thinking that this is all petroleum focused or that the petroleum-related work is one that is dominating the budget here. It's not. To the extent that there is, there is work also happening there in LNG, up and through the Delta and supporting work that's happening there in that region, as well as in the south section. Again, Madam Chair, I'm trying to figure out how I can be succinct on what is actually a very large question about an area that does provide supports to some pretty anchor areas of the economy. Again, I'm happy to, perhaps, do a bit of a write-up on what the details of this department does if that would be of assistance. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't need to get into a very large debate about, perhaps, ITI reviewing some of its mandate and restructuring some of its departments. I'll leave that to another time. Can I just get a clarification: in the 2019-2020 actuals for the NWT geological survey, there's actually a $1.3 million decline. Can I just get an explanation for that? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. May I suggest going to the director of finance, please.
Thank you. Ms. Salvador.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a decrease of 1.4 because of the sunset for the Slave Geological Province exploration development initiative. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. One last comment: I actually like seeing these line items of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act implementation and when a department goes out and creates a unit and staffs it and makes it very clear. I would encourage all other Ministers, when you have large pieces of legislation or regulations to implement, make a unit, give a manager with that title. It creates clear accountability, and it creates clear funding. It also kind of shows where a government's priorities are at. I'm not sure this aligns with my priorities, but I think this means people aren't doing things off the side of their desk. I note a number of departments are very behind in all of their regulations and probably because they haven't created a clear unit and funded it like this. I'll leave that as a comment. Good job on whoever decided to actually make this very clear who is supposed to do that work, which is a large and important piece of work. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member, and I'll take that as a comment. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to continue on the line of my colleague about staff that we have that are dedicated to oil and gas. Look, I know some of these people. They are hardworking. The reality is: there hasn't been any exploration, seismic drilling, since devolution, seven years ago. I'm not quite sure what everybody does, but yesterday, we heard about OROGO having a third-party assessment done of their resource needs. Is that something that the Minister is prepared to look at in terms of the oil and gas function within ITI, having a third-party assessment to look at resourcing? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There are no plans right now to have any sort of extra assessment around the need for this unit right at the moment. However, what we are fairly confident in is that, while there may not have been a lot of oil and gas exploration, there continues to be a very large amount of interest in LNG production, distribution, marketing, et cetera, across the Northwest Territories. There is a lot of activity in the Delta, but there is activity in the South Slave, as well, interested in it both at a small scale and a large scale.
There is certainly that aspect of it, in addition to which there is monitoring that has to be undertaken with respect to the petroleum, land tenure system, and various other holder responsibilities. There is, again, monitoring that happens at the existing tenures. There still is a fair bit of work that goes on, and as the deputy minister already said, there are efforts to reprofile or shift. That it's not singularly for oil and gas, but that it's looking at mineral resources, as well, in the regions. Again, there is no need to worry that these folks won't be kept busy. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. That's kind of what I expected here. The tenure system should actually be rolled into the Department of Lands. They are the ones that already do the surface. It creates a conflict when you have a department that's trying to promote the resource and then trying to manage the rights at the same time. I have made that suggestion before, but I expect it's kind of like water off a duck's back. While we are on the subject of ducks, I want to turn over to page 216, the contributions page here. I have been here for five years, and once again, there is core funding for the NWT Chamber of Mines listed here. It actually increases from $30,000 to $55,000, which is an 83 percent increase. Can someone explain to me the increase in this core funding? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is project-based funding. I would like to suggest I can direct that to the deputy minister to describe the changes in programming.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Strand.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, on an annual basis, we work on projects with the Chamber of Mines. You can see that in some years, like 2019-2020, the numbers were actually higher. These are estimates. We have different events at different conferences that the Chamber co-hosts with us; public awareness and outreach projects, such as their Mining North Works. They have helped with the delivery of prospecting programs. Every year, it changes, and all I can say is that, this year, we are working on more profile for their Mining North Works, which is a great program that is in the schools in Nunavut. We are looking to see what is in the realm of possible in the territories. Also, we meet with the chamber every two weeks in a working group. We are working on our competitiveness. We are looking at actions. They are contributing to the critical metals action plan. There is a lot of good work. It's intensive, and as Minister said, it's not core funding. It's project-by-project basis. It's ongoing. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, smells like a duck, it is a duck. This is core funding. Look, I'm sure that meeting every two weeks with the chamber is great. I wish that all NGOs had that kind of access to our departments. That's really great, but I don't see a similar sort of increase for other NGOs that get core funding. I am just going to leave that there for now, Madam Chair. I want to go over to the line item on 215, which is Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act implementation. The Minister, in her opening remarks, talked about how there is $360,000 for this work, but the line item here actually shows $587,000. Can I get an explanation as to the discrepancy? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of ITI.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I suggest this might go to our director of finance, Ms. Salvador, please.
Thank you. Ms. Salvador.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The $587,000 is actually a reallocated budget of $231,000 from our mineral and petroleum resources division to this new division. It includes our director position salary. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. That's interesting that, not only has this new division been created and we have money to help pay for studies and so on, but they have actually reallocated staff now to do this work. I agree with my colleague from Yellowknife North that this is interesting and shows the importance of mining and oil and gas to this department and, perhaps, Cabinet as a whole. I don't see other departments doing this kind of thing. Environment and Natural Resources, Lands, they have a lot of work to do in terms of regulation development and implementation of the Public Land Act, development of regulations, Protected Areas Act, those kinds of things. Can the Minister explain what the secret is here to get extra money to do this work? Maybe she can share that with her colleagues on the other side. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am obviously not here to defend the structure and organization of every other department. I would think it should be a good thing that a department is able to reallocate funds from within or reallocate staff from within rather than constantly having to create new positions.
Madam Chair, this is a major piece of legislation. It is one that was implemented at the end of the last Assembly but is waiting on its regulations. I have many times heard it said that, in fact, notwithstanding how big the act is, it is, in fact, the regulations; everyone is waiting to see how they unfold. It is a piece of legislation that we are committed, with the IGC, to go out to fairly intensive consultations with Indigenous governments. That is part of the devolution agreement and the agreements that we have now. This is an opportunity to really fundamentally change one of the anchor industries, or the anchor industry, in the Northwest Territories. I am not going to be defensive about it. I think it's a good thing, Madam Chair. I think people are excited about it. The industry is excited about it. The indirect industries that benefit, I think, should be excited about it. To the extent that it's a good thing, all I can say is that I can go and talk to the other Ministers and see how they plan to get their legislations rolling. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that response. Is there a publicly available plan or schedule or anything to do this work? I have yet to see that, and I am as anxious as the Minister to get some of this work done. I am not aware of any public plans or schedules to do this. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We were really just waiting for the IGC process, the intergovernmental council process, to be concluded with the protocol there. With that done, I will commit to getting a full outline of our expected timeline on this to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. Member.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate that commitment. In the remaining dwindling seconds here, I see that the travel line for the department, in the current year, we only expect to spend $361,000, but the travel is actually much higher that for 2021-2022. Is this kind of wishful thinking that the pandemic is going to be over and we are going to be able to travel all over the place? Why is it at that level? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
