Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Mr. Bromley for raising this issue. I certainly wanted to give a first shot at it. I think he did it very well. This problem out there on the Ingraham Trail is not just a problem here in Yellowknife, it is certainly a problem in other regions. The bigger issue here is that it is affecting this region quite hard. One of the issues raised here today was about the relationship with the YK Dene and certainly that this new issue has fallen on their lap.
I want to know what the MACA Minister is doing to help maybe build a relationship with the YK Dene on this particular issue. Like the old saying goes, there is strength in numbers. That may draw better attention to this issue to Minister Valcourt, if we are working with the YK Dene who may eventually be the final stewards of this land and the GNWT may be temporary stewards of this land until their land claim is done. It would be a great benefit if we work as a relationship, fight together, strength in numbers. Will the Minister reach out and lead this initiative? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has reached out to take the lead in this. We, as I mentioned to Member Bromley, have had good discussions with the YKDFN. We met with them out in Detah. The Member makes a good point that there is strength in numbers, if we can all relay our concerns to the federal government as to the number of leases that were let out there. The majority of them, there are 122 and I think 35 of them are here in the capital. There are a few out in the other areas of the Northwest Territories, but the issue is not as problematic there as it is here because there is a lot of private land up there that people that want cabin leases go through. We have reached out to the YKDFN and we are looking forward to working with them as we move this forward. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if I heard the Minister correctly, and from what I have heard on the ground, through the land advisory relationship process, the YK Dene were caught by surprise. Even the GNWT was caught by surprise. If it wasn’t for some of the screaming, well-tuned-in public, most of us probably would have been caught by surprise even worse than what has been happening now.
From the Minister’s perspective through process only, obviously, were there any gaps here? Why wasn’t there proper feedback from the feds on a relationship of the land advisory process? I believe the GNWT is party to this. I believe the YK Dene are somewhat party to this. Did the feds make a mistake? Did the process fall off the wheels? What can we do to get it back on track so these things, if we have disputes, we can get them on the record and slow them down where necessary? Thank you.
We had attempted to form a working group, and the YKDFN were going to join us on the working group. We extended an invitation for AANDC to be part of this working group as we were doing our density study.
Again, we were quite surprised when we started getting calls on the activity that was going out on Crown land. So we will continue to try and work with AANDC and the YKDFN, because this is an issue that I think we need to resolve quickly before devolution takes place because we are going to be inheriting all the leases on Crown land. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If I understand the process correctly, the feds, in allowing these leases, at present it’s outside of our control and they are following the process until they wish to. They are steamrolling until theoretically April 1st when we take this over.
I am wondering if the MACA Minister sees this as a potential problem for enforcement. I’ve even heard rumours that people are building two-storey cabins or whatever the case may be. Who knows what they are building out there? So I guess there’s going to be an enforcement type of issue that is going to fall on the shoulders of the NWT government, as well as their long-term devolution partners, the Akaitcho region or the Yellowknives, in particular.
So, what is the MACA Minister going to propose to help strategize to get ahead of this problem that I can already foresee as going to be a major problem? Thank you.
I’m not quite sure what the conditions of the federal leases are. I believe it’s a 100-square metre building. It could be one or two storeys.
To the Member’s question, we are trying to update our regulations. We are going to have good regulations in place, good density studies in place. More importantly, we are going to have good enforcement in place.
I have directed the department, through the proper business planning process, to come forward with a request to possibly bring on more enforcement people, knowing that as of April 1st we are going to be inheriting the enforcement of all Commissioner’s land. These leases, the hunting and fishing leases, are good for five years. So at the end of five years, my understanding is those leases will then become Commissioner’s land leases, so they will have to abide by our regulations and we’ll have all the proper enforcement in place. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Hawkins, that was your final, short supplementary. I just forgot to tell you.
---Laughter
I checked with the Clerk. Thank you very much.
---Laughter
