Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my statement regarding Commissioner’s land trespass and the recreational land use framework being developed for the Prosperous-Walsh Lake area.
Although slow to start, I appreciated the work being done by MACA to crack down on cases of trespassing. Can we have the Minister’s assurance that all cases of unauthorized occupation from this day forward will be considered squatting and steps will be taken to remove this occupation by administrative or legal means, bearing in mind Aboriginal rights and their use of land? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the Member and all Members that MACA will take all necessary steps to deal with illegal squatters. The uptake on suspending the strategy has been very good. We have had a lot of folks come forward to legitimize their leases, not only in the Yellowknife area but in other areas in the Northwest Territories. We actually had 100 percent uptake in the other communities, so the message is out there. I can assure the Member that all illegal squatters will be dealt with. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, thanks for the Minister’s comments there. Good work has also been done on the development of the recreational leasing framework. Information is being gathered towards a comprehensive understanding of the resource base and the use of the area can bear while maintaining our vital interest in preserving the watershed of Yellowknife for our drinking water supply. The next essential step is an invitation of the general public to contribute its knowledge and suggestions. Will the Minister commit to a full public consultation, keeping in mind the need to allow sufficient time for full consultation should they happen and go ahead in the summertime? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of finalizing the density study and it is our intent to meet with the Cassidy Point-Prosperous Lake Association and hold a stakeholders forum, and the intent is to hold that in June of this year where we will be able to get input from all interested stakeholders and members of the public. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to include all of the public in that consultation. The work this government is doing in the block transfer area is good, but, unfortunately, similar action from the federal government and protection of the commons is missing. For those who set up a metre outside the block land transfer boundary, they are home free. The federal government must be kept accountable and be called upon to meet its responsibilities. How is the Minister keeping the pressure up on the federal government to hold them accountable? What steps are being taken to bring them to the table for an effective partnership on this issue? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, we do have a working group that does include the Aboriginal group. INAC is also invited to the table to take part in the discussion. So I can assure the Member that we’ll do what we can to continue to invite them to the table and have their input.
Some of the federal land, obviously, would be land that would be identified in some of these land claim processes that are going on, but it is our intent to always make sure we have the stakeholders, including INAC and the Aboriginal governments at the table to have a good discussion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m afraid that is less than a satisfactory response. I’m sure the federal government is welcome at any of our tables, but here we need to go to their table and do some real work here. So I would have to grade that quite low, Mr. Speaker, and I’m sure the Minister can come up with better.
But I don’t just lay this on the Minister of MACA, Mr. Speaker. Every MLA and especially Cabinet has a role to play, because as the Minister recognizes, this is dealing with the federal government, big daddy out there. I’m wondering what role the Minister sees all of the MLAs and, for example, a block land transfer of this area, the Yellowknife MLAs, but throughout the NWT, I know the Minister is working in the Delta, and Cabinet. What role does he see all MLAs and Cabinet playing in working with the federal government to get them going? Particularly, how is he working to get this accomplished through the devolution discussions? Obviously those are going to take six to eight years and at the rate this problem is developing, we’ll be looking at doubling to quadrupling of this problem by the time we have authority to the land. Thank you.
Thank you. I would grade that question B or B plus.
---Laughter
We’re starting to grade everything here and I’ll work on improving mine for the next report card.
We’ll continue to work with the federal government. I mean, obviously there’s a lot at stake here. I mean, there are devolution talks, which you know would speed up the whole process because we’d have more authority over the lands in the Northwest Territories. But I mean, I can assure the Member and all Members that it is our intent to constantly work and put pressure on the federal government to realize that they have some responsibilities up here and they need to take those quite seriously, they need to become involved in discussions we have. We can have discussions between the Aboriginal governments and the territorial government, but we also need to make sure that we have discussions with the federal government and I can assure the Members that I will continue to push that issue quite strongly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
