Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last couple days, I've been asking the Minister of Lands some questions about the process here. So, in this House, he talked about IGOs can identify which cabins are rights-based cabins. Can the Minister please advise what he and the Department mean by "rights-based cabins"? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we know, there are many structures on the public lands that are administered by this government. That's why we're engaging with Indigenous governments at this time to determine how we can find out how many there are and on what basis the claims that they are rights-based are made.
I think I've heard that a number of times. I've asked the Minister: what do they mean by "rights-based cabins"? That's all I'm trying to ask. What's their definition, or how are they getting this information out there? I'd like to know what that means.
As I mentioned earlier, there are a great number of cabins and camps out there, rights-based ones, that would be ones that are associated with an Aboriginal right to have the cabin or camp, so that's what we're looking into at this time. We really don't know how many there are out there. That's why we're engaging with the Aboriginal groups throughout the Northwest Territories.
That really didn't answer my question; it says how many cabins out there, and they're looking at it, and that. Again: does the Department have a definition that they can use that says "rights-based cabins" and how they check it off and say, yeah, it's used for hunting, it's used for trapping, is it used for this. Do they have a definition of how they make that decision?
We are dealing with this exact issue in our consultation with Indigenous groups throughout the Northwest Territories. Some of the conditions that we might see as important are Indigenous ownership located within an area where persons of that heritage have established or asserted rights, an assertion by the owner of the cabin or camp of his Aboriginal rights. So those are some of the basic things we're going to be looking at as we engage with Aboriginal groups throughout the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I greatly appreciate the Minister's answer in helping us understand it a little bit better. So, my last question here is: once these cabins are classified as rights-based cabins, I believe this is stage 1 or whatever stage it is in, is this the end of the process for Indigenous cabin owners? They're fearing that they're going to see their cabins be targeted for potential lease fees in the future.
Those are issues that certainly will have to be determined. Once we find out how many of the cabins are actually rights-based, we will be dealing with those additional issues, also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
