Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to follow up with the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I think I heard him say earlier today in response to one of my questions that our government has simply applied to the Yukon government for a renewal of a land-use approval that is already in existence. I did check the land-use approval that we had with the Government of the Yukon. It is LQ00253B. It ran from February 4, 2016 to December 21, 2018, so it has actually expired. Can the Minister tell us again: has our government actually applied for a renewal or a new permit for the work that is to take place at the Mactung site? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I assume the Member is talking about the quartz-mining land-use approval process in the Yukon. If I am correct, that has been in place for a long time. That exact permit has been in place since 2014, Mr. Speaker. Before that, it has been in place since 2009.
I want to thank the Minister for that. I did check the Yukon quartz-mining land-use approval application that was submitted on behalf of our government by Tetra Tech. There is a box in there that says that it is actually a new permit that is being applied for. I will share that with the Minister. I want to quote from the supporting package. It says, "There is currently no formal plan to carry out the activities proposed. The GNWT is seeking a quartz-mining land-use approval in part as a means of increasing the appeal of the Mactung property to prospective buyers."
Can the Minister tell us: is it the intention of our government to actually carry out any exploration, or is this really a play to try to hype up the value of the property?
I would like to remind Members that that information is not readily available for the Minister to view. If you can, reiterate your question to the Minister, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I would like to know from the Minister: is it the intention of our government to actually carry out any exploration work at the Mactung property?
Mr. Speaker, as I've said, this renewal is required by our government to maintain the site. We have to have access to our claims and our leases for any type of activity there. The permit includes approvals for more than just exploration. It covers monitoring activities, remediation, ongoing clean-up, like the work that we did last year at site, and the value is needed for us to keep this permit in place.
It is my understanding through media reports that the Yukon Conservation Society has raised concerns about the speculative nature of this land-use approval application. Can the Minister confirm whether this is being done to increase the value of the property?
As I have clearly said in this House already a number of times today, this is clearly a necessity for us to be able to continue with our permitting process for this property, and, if we do not renew this quartz-mining land-use approval, the Yukon Government can tell us to remediate this site. That is not going to add value to us trying to sell this site and do what we are trying to do for residents in the Northwest Territories, is try to bring another mine on-stream for residents of the NWT so we have jobs, revenue, and the best potential of this site, being non-competitive with the Cantung property if they were separate.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again for that. Presumably, if we were able to sell this site and the new owner were to take it over, why wouldn't the new owner apply for a quartz-mining land-use approval? Why are we doing it now?
We are the owners of this property right now, and, if we want to continue on activities of this site, we have to renew this permit. We don't know how long this process is going to take place. We have engaged with the federal government. We have agreed to look at selling these two pieces of property together to get the best potential from both sites by doing them at once. We will continue to work towards that, and we think that this is in the best interest of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
