Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Presently, the municipal government of the City of Yellowknife only controls 9 percent of the land within its municipal boundary. In order for the City of Yellowknife to access any of the additional lands beyond their land planning, an application has to be made to the Department of Lands. This process has become so burdensome and so difficult to navigate that the City of Yellowknife made it one of their election priorities that all of the vacant Commissioner's land be transferred to the City of Yellowknife within their municipal boundaries. My question is to the Minister of Lands of whether he can commit that that Land will be transferred to the municipal government.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT has met several times to discuss with the city initiative, including two meetings with the city to date. Work has been focusing on ensuring clarity on what Lands initiative will include, ensure clarity on the process to carry out the initiative, and identification of milestones accomplished throughout the initiative and who is responsible for each. The department is focused on ensuring the initiative is carried out in a timely manner that ensures the transfer is done right. A meeting with the city is scheduled for next week to continue working with this initiative moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would ask the Minister to update this House on the result of those meetings. Also, my hope is that following the kind of paternalistic nature between the Department of Lands and the City of Yellowknife, after these lands are developed, perhaps some of those employees at the Department of Lands can begin working with other community governments to transfer the land. Can the Minister tell me what conversations are happening with other municipal governments to transfer land within their municipal boundaries?
The department continues to work with all the communities in NWT to address their individual land needs. Lands is not in any discussions with communities at this time than a minor transfer similar to the initiative currently being worked on by the city.
Can the Minister clarify whether any other municipal governments have asked to have the Commissioner's land within their boundaries transferred to them?
Lands has not been in any discussion presently. There may be some conversations at a regional level. Right now, we haven't seen anything at headquarters.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the problem here is that the City of Yellowknife feels that the current process set out by the Department of Lands is so difficult that they can't actually develop vacant land, and it has harmed economic development. They are asking for a solution because the process has become so difficult, which in turn means our other communities are also dealing with this process. Will the Minister commit to reviewing the current process for transitioning Commissioner's lands when a community wishes to use them? Thank you.
Can't make a commitment right now because right now, we are trying to work on our Public Lands Act. Part of it is our regulations right now. What I can tell the Member is that the city, MACA, and Lands are in the process of working together on this issue. Any other municipality that wishes to work on this issue, we are more than willing to work with them to address this. Again, we have to get our regulations in place. The Public Land Act was passed in the last sitting, but we now need the regulations in place to be able to deal with this matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
