Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I may make the water murkier, so I am going to turn to the assistant deputy minister to help out, try to hopefully make people understand what we do. Thank you, Mr. Chair, with your permission.

From my understanding, we work with our Indigenous governments to identify rights-based cabins. We have heard some challenges, that people may want to assert their rights-based cabins but that it's not their traditional territory. That could be some of the challenge that we face. However, if it's rights-based cabins and we are able to deal with it, we are putting it to the side; we are not dealing with that issue right now. We want to deal with the people who are squatters, I guess is the best way to say it, people who are not supposed to be there. That is what our priority is. It has been 50...

The answer is yes, but for further detail, I will turn to the deputy minister, with your permission. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have with me today Deputy Minister Sylvia Haener and director of finance and administration, Katherine Macdonald. We also have, in the waiting room, the assistant deputy minister of operations, Blair Chapman. We will be swapping him out with our deputy minister when it comes to operations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I might be a little confused on what the Member is asking, but we want affirmative action people in place. We want to put Indigenous P1s and P2s in our government doing the work representing and working for the residents of the Northwest Territories. There is a hiring process. There is an HR process that we need to follow. We follow that to a T. Sometimes there are effective employees, and if they are effective employees, then there is a system in place where they actually get the opportunity to get the next job available if they're qualified.

To answer the Member's question, yes, we...

Thank you. Basically, that there is from our unauthorized occupancy that we are dealing with. That's the money that we are doing. For clarity, I will turn to the deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I guess this is going to be one of those "I agree to disagree" with the Member. This is our commitment, the Northwest Territories' commitment to the Wek'eezhii part of the plan. That's our commitment. That is our understanding. This is what we have to pay, and we are honouring that. We have worked with the federal government, we have worked with the Indigenous governments, and this is what our costs are. This is something that we are honouring. We have worked with them, and we are able to do it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair. I am here to present the 2021-2022 Main Estimates for the Department of Lands. Overall, the department's estimates propose a decrease of $939,000, or 4 percent, over the Main Estimates 2020-2021. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the Department of Lands while continuing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of these proposed estimates include:

a sunset of $976,000 for the Addressing Equity Lease Initiative;

a sunset of $453,000 for base funding received at...

For that detail, I would have to ask the assistant deputy minister to answer that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those six positions were our equity lease positions that were sunsetted. Those positions were removed from our budget. However, just so the Members are aware, none of the people that had those positions lost any jobs. We were able to find positions within our organization to keep them at work. It was in equity leases, and it was just, like I said, sunsetted. Thank you, Mr. Chair.