Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And how much is the unspent balance? Thank you.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we won't have that figure until the fiscal year end. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm encouraged and we, the GNWT, depend on our federal counterparts, as you know, for many sources of funds for various initiatives. Is there other opportunities that the department is pursuing within the business plan for this fiscal year to access further federal funding?
Take climate adaptation for example, we are the victims of climate change, no doubt, and it's been said by the Minister a number of times that our global environment is warming 4 percent faster. So to address that, there should be ongoing discussions with climate change adaptation. I'm just wondering if the department actively involved in federal negotiations for various pots of money. Thank you.
Minister for Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, Madam Chair, I think this is a very good question. And currently we are signatories to 40 federal funding agreements in a variety of areas across the department. And certainly, it's top of mind from the department to explore every opportunity with the federal government to access any potential funding pots available. And I'd also just like to add that they've done a really good job of, you know, working with the federal government to try and reduce the amount of contribution -- or forms of contribution that the GNWT has to make to these agreements. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank this department for taking an aggressive role in accessing maximum opportunities of federal access for funds here, and it's very encouraging to see and hear. Particularly in coming from my area, you know, I can really sincerely relate to the aggression taken by this department. You know, I can come around and say well, I got no water, no road, and it's costly to fly, so I'm glad to see this department pursuing 40 agreements. That's complimentary. Mahsi.
Minister for Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'll pass to director St. Arnaud, and she can give -- provide some detail on some of the agreements. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Director St. Arnaud.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to show the Member page 78 as part of the business plan, that's where we list all the cost shared agreements with Canada, and you'll note in the 2025-2026 Main Estimates column, some of them look blank but we've actually negotiated those agreements for future years just after the cutoff for the main estimates. So for example, 2 billion trees we've renegotiated. We've renegotiated the bilateral nature agreement. And we've negotiated funding for bison, the surface rights board. So there's a bunch that we've negotiated after the main estimates were prepared as well, so you'll see that in the revised next year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for the Sahtu.
Nothing further, Madam Chair.
I have Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Fur price program and CHAP and then take your -- take a child trapping, those are all good programs. I know that they are all good programs, and they are being well used by many of the community members and schools because we use those for food, and it's a good learning experience for the young people. They learn. In the whole process, they learn to have respect for their land, for the environment. And so it's good in many ways, you know, like, because there is a lot of respect. We're trying to get our young people -- we can never -- we know that -- because of the Green Peace, our people used to rely on trapping, you know, fall, spring, and it sustain us, and it still is too for clothing now. So in here, there's a fur price program and all these other program, CHAP, and take your child -- or take a child trapping. How is the funding allocated?
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'll pass that to director St. Arnaud.
Director St. Arnaud.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So there's two pieces here relating to that program. You'll see under grants on page 94, the fur price program, and that money is for trappers who come in and give their fur. We give them an advance. And in some cases, we'll give them bonuses or other payments throughout the year. Then there's the sustainable livelihoods line under contributions, and that's where you're talking about things like CHAP, traditional economy, on the land collaborative, and take a family on the land and take a kid trapping. The budget is split out at $1.68 million for community harvesters assistance program; 650K for traditional economy, which is harvester mentorship, traditional knowledge, country foods, that all falls under there. The on the land collaborative has $150,000. Take a family on the land's budget is $150,000, and take a kid trapping's budget is $225,000. Thank you.
Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you for the information. It's good. The other part too is the conservation planning, and it's the same. You know, it's -- it's -- that is also important too for -- because we're trying to teach our young people about the conservation as well. So according to the budget here, for the new fiscal year there is a big change within the budget from previous. It went down significantly from 645 to 215. Why; why is there a big change within that budget?
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If you would indulge me for a moment, I just wanted to go back to the previous question just for a moment.
I just wanted to point out that there's been somewhat of a decline in the fur program over the last little while. So to try and offset that, we've been offering more workshops and courses to try and prop up the industry and give sort of some more incentives to get more folks involved. So for this specific question, the decrease in funding is due to the sunsetting of the nature agreement but now that we've signed new bilateral nature agreement, that will return back into the budget in a future iteration. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. And then for the disaster compensations, it's -- you know, it says here that, you know, grants available to hunters and trappers to replace equipment lost as a result of natural disaster.
That -- I know this is for natural disaster, but there's also the one for the forest fire as well. So there are two separate, you know. So I just wanted to ask the Minister if -- I know that, you know -- I got quite a few phone calls because of the wildfire. It's within the next section. But I -- that is also a natural disaster as well, you know, but -- so I know that I got a lot of phone calls because of the infrastructure that was destroyed along Highway No. 3. It's not just that one, but it's also in other regions as well. And in Behchoko as well too, you know, we have -- we lost four infrastructure. We lost four houses in my community. So I want to ask the Minister, with all the applications received for compensations, it would be nice to get a report, the status of the application, if all the people that submitted the application if they were compensated to date. Thank you.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think that we'll certainly be able to provide that information in a high-level kind of generic to, you know, protect the privacy of the applicants. But I don't see why we couldn't provide that information for the Members. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Monfwi.
Okay, my time is up for.
Okay. No further questions, please turn to page 93.
Environment and Climate Change, policy and strategic planning, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $13,294,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we're going to take a short break for the interpreters. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Thank you. We are moving on to regulatory, assessment and authorizations, beginning on page 97 with information items on page 100. Are there any questions? Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just let me get my computer logged in here; still just coming off the break. Okay, thank you, Madam Chair.
I wanted to ask some questions about something that's come up a number of times about bulk land transfers. So I just really want to first ask what is getting in the way of transferring land to the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this has been an ongoing issue for the bulk land transfer with the city of Yellowknife. We've attempted -- we've had -- I won't say attempted, we've had many conversations with the city and we're currently in the process of looking at a smaller scale approach to the bulk land transfer than was initially envisioned. But I will pass to deputy minister to provide a little bit more detail. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Deputy minister Jenkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We've had some really positive discussions with the city in the last few months, and we're working towards -- really, the city's going to be looking towards identifying some -- its priorities for land transfers and sort of bringing a bit of focus into -- for us to be able to work with them towards moving. And we're looking at establishing -- we've been talking with the city manager about having a memorandum of collaboration between the department and between the city on this issue. So one that's very important and the city is looking at sort of identifying its priorities and that can give us some focus and hopefully we can work together to transfer some land to the city. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I am excited to hear that from the deputy minister. I'm glad to hear that you've been meeting. Glad to hear that you're making some progress and identifying specifics to move forward on. It's certainly a priority for myself, and I think for the Assembly generally, to ensure that land transfers are happening, and it's a priority for the department as indicated in the business plan.
Can the Minister perhaps elaborate a bit, do we have any legislation -- I know that the Land Titles Act is involved here. So is there anything the Minister can tell us about aspects of that Act that might, if changed, would be able to speed up this kind of process? Just noting that it's been taking quite a while from identification of the issue to being able to find a resolution; we're still not there. If the Minister or his staff could discuss it further, I'd appreciate some more information. Thanks.
Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, it certainly has been a challenging file from the perspective of -- within the legislation, there are certain requirements which impact more the small communities than the larger communities if you're talking about the need for like development plans, appropriate bylaws within communities that will meet the requirement under the Act to do the transfers. And specifically to the changes to the Act, I would rather have the deputy minister speak to that directly. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Deputy minister Jenkins.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So, you know, we are working with communities on areas that they've identified interest for land transfers and to -- you know, there are a number of requirements under our legislation and the legislation, you know, including the Land Titles Act and there's the Cities, Towns, and Villages Act, the Community Planning and Development Act and, you know, these things do include things like surveys, bylaws that allow the community to acquire, administer, and control the land, community plans for proper zoning and, of course, we have consultation, section 35 requirements that we have to undertake. And, you know, our focus right now is to work with communities to identify and try to prioritize the areas that they're interested in, in particular for housing. As you can appreciate, and I'm sure everyone can appreciate, the amount of time that it does take to change legislation is substantive and the housing need is now, so we're working to focus on that and the priorities that are in the communities within and to use our resources towards that goal. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do appreciate the department keeping the fire burning on that and setting it as a priority and moving that forward.
I am curious to know -- I mean, my understanding is that some of the issues related to kind of dated legislation were supposed to be addressed by the new Public Lands Act. Why have we not made more progress on implementing that Act? It looks to me like the review substantially happened five years ago, and yet we don't have it in place. Can the department kind of help us understand what's the hold up. Thank you.
Minister for Environment and Climate Change.
