Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I spoke about the Thaidene Nene and the critical path towards finalizing the establishment of that unique park. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. We have, as you know, three main participants taking place in the establishment of that park, Lutselk'e Dene First Nation, Parks Canada, and of course ourselves. There are a lot of, I will call them, milestones and obligations that we have to meet in order to establish this park. I would just like to ask the Minister: can he advise if the Government of the Northwest Territories has in fact fulfilled all its commitments to make the park a reality?
I'm not talking necessarily about the protected area strategy. I'm talking about all the other benchmarks and commitments that we have to meet as a territorial government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the establishment of TDN does remain a priority of the GNWT and a mandate for the Department of ENR. Regarding TDN establishment, we are in active negotiations with Lutselk'e, other Indigenous governments, as part of Parks Canada. All the negotiations are proceeding in a timely fashion. We are hopeful that all agreements will be signed off in 2019, prior to the end of the life of the 18th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to be hopeful, too, and I really appreciate the Minister's reply. Certainly, we do want to meet this mandate obligation. It is of the utmost highest priority.
Mr. Speaker, we just recently had a presentation from LKDFN with regard to Thaidene Nene. In there, they estimated that there could be up to 18 jobs for the Lutselk'e Dene First Nation, most of which, it seems like most of which, would be tied to the conservation economy. I'm just wondering: can the Minister let us know, aside from those 18, are there specific jobs that might be tied directly to the GNWT? If so, what are those and how many would there be? How many are we anticipating?
Mr. Speaker, this is a possibility. Once TDN is established, a management plan will be developed, which will better inform the staff complement for the protected areas. I wouldn't be able to tell the Member right now how many jobs that we are hoping to create out of this or planning to create out of this. Once the management plan is developed, then we will have a better understanding of the number of jobs and the types of jobs that are going to be available.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister talked earlier that we are hopeful in terms of meeting all of our obligations to establish this park in the life of this Assembly. Can the Minister maybe provide a little bit more detail and maybe speak a little bit more to specific timelines and what, maybe, the next steps might be?
Mr. Speaker, the negotiations are ongoing. The negotiations will conclude with the signing of the land transfer agreement with Parks Canada as well as other agreements with IGOs as required. The GNWT, now this is a different word, is "confident," instead of "hopeful" is confident, that these agreements will be concluded within the life of the 18th Legislative Assembly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his reply. We have moved from "hope" to "confidence," and that is a good thing, but there is a missing piece, Mr. Speaker. That leads me to ask the Minister about: can he update us and this Assembly on the current status of the Territorial Protected Areas Act? Are we as confident in having that piece of legislation passed so that we can enable the establishment of this park? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, establishment of a new territorial park via legislation during the life of the Assembly, needless to say, is a priority with the Government of the Northwest Territories as well as the mandate item. A collaborative effort process with the Indigenous government organization, other level of governments, and stakeholders has been undertaken to gather input needed to develop this important piece of legislation. The work continues. Public engagement is also underway. Formal consultation with Indigenous governments and organizations is also ongoing. It will be conducted prior to introducing the bill for first reading. We are looking at introducing the bill for first reading during the winter 2019 session, which would be the February-March session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
