Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue with some questions, that I didn’t get time for, to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs relative to the recreational land lease policy.
The Minister, in answering my questions and my colleague’s questions, I understood him to say that he admitted that there are certain problems with the consultation that’s been done to date and with the report that’s been out there, that there are certain issues in regard to land ownerships and so on. I also heard the Minister say that he felt that those could be resolved by the final draft date of June 30th of this year. I’d like to ask the Minister, does he really think that land issues such as YK Dene First Nations claims to land and mineral claims ownerships of land, does he really think that those can be resolved by June 30th? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Anything can be resolved, and as I said, we have a discussion paper out. Interested stakeholders will have an opportunity to look at the discussion paper, give us their input, and then we would, by the middle of June, put out a final product, if it’s a good one, and if not, then we’ll continue to do the work until we have one that’s perfect. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I’m really pleased to hear that we’re going to look for a perfect product. I think that’s great. One of the concerns that I’ve expressed is the land issue, but there’s also the issue of actually doing some assessment of current use of the lake. That really can’t be done certainly for summer use until sometime at least after July, I would think. Will the Minister commit to delaying this report until after there has been an evaluation of current use of the lake and, well, actually, I should say the study area, which includes the Walsh, Banting and Jackson lakes? Thank you.
I’m not going to make a commitment to delay anything right now. However, I have assured the Member and Members of this House that we will have a very good product once we release it, and if that product includes the density study… I do recall seeing some maps with all the density of the lakes in question and the lake in Inuvik, and I can assure the Members that I will, as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, ensure that our department has a very good product before we release it and it’s one that is fairly acceptable to everyone. Thank you.
I don’t know, Mr. Speaker, the Minister’s gone from a perfect report to one that’s fairly acceptable. I don’t know. We’re going down, not up.
One of the concerns that current leaseholders have expressed is that it’s not the density necessarily that currently exists on the lake but it is the use of the lake, and the addition of, for instance, 35 lots on Walsh doesn’t really contemplate the current use, casual use and day use of people, particularly during the summer but also during the winter. The Minister is talking about density, but we also need to evaluate the use on a daily basis and, in my mind, that requires somebody sitting at the Vee Lake boat launch and noticing, marking down, taking a tally of all the people that are using the lake.
My colleague mentioned, and I mentioned in my statement, but my colleague mentioned the capacity of the department to enforce the leases that they’re going to be let. The Minister suggested that there might be some increase or some use of manpower to do that. I’d like to know from the Minister whether he thinks this can be done from within the current existing budget or are we going to see a request for an increase to the MACA budget to do the enforcement capacity that is required. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I said the report will be perfect. Whether it is acceptable to everybody is a different story.
I have committed and we have to have a look at this, obviously, and look at our budget issues and see if we are able to do it from within. If not, obviously, with our fiscal restraints, it will be something we will have to bring before this House to get approval. We will explore all options to see how we can best bring forward someone to enforce the new regulations. We will continue to work on that and I can commit to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the things that were brought up loud and clear at the public meeting that I attended was the overuse of the infrastructure at the Vee Lake landing. There is a pier there. There is a boat launch there. They are both extremely overused and they are both funded on a volunteer basis by the users of the lake. So I am glad to hear the Minister mention that maybe the department is willing to look at infrastructure. My question to him is whether or not the government is going to take some responsibility for the infrastructure at the Vee Lake landing, garbage, boat launch dock and there is a huge issue with parking. Will the Minister consider to provide some funding for that? Thank you.
I can assure the Member that I will work with my colleague over in ITI as far as the parks side of it goes and see if there is anything that we can do as a government to address some of the issues that were raised by the Member.
Again, as far as the discussion paper, I said on a number of occasions now that it is our intent to get feedback from all affected stakeholders and public on the discussion paper that is presented now and possibly have a product out by June 30th. Again, we want to make sure that it is a product that is a very good product and one that is acceptable by most. It will be a perfect report. Whether it is acceptable by most people is another issue.
I can assure the Members of this House that this is an issue that we take quite seriously. It is one that is having territorial-wide effects as far as squatters go. We are doing what we can to ensure that we help address this issue and deal with it not only in the Yellowknife area, we have it up in the Beaufort-Delta and we also may have it in a number of other places. But we can make sure we are in a position to deal with this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mr. Hawkins.
