Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. I've raised the issue of our failure to prevent liabilities at Mactung, and Cantung, and our inability to sell the Mactung property at least 11 times since I've been an MLA. I can't quite match the 65 times raised by my colleague here. But can the Minister tell us how she can improve communications with MLAs and the public on what is happening with this mining property? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to any sort of sale program or process that may be underway, it would not be unusual for that to involve confidential discussions. And if that's the case, it's very difficult, if not impossible, considering legal obligations, to be displaying that out publicly.
That said, Mr. Speaker, we are a consensus government and there's been a lot of work done in this Assembly in terms of understanding better how to communicate between Ministers and MLAs when it comes to the development of legislation and the development of regulations, and perhaps there's an opportunity to here to consider what other processes we might have in place to improve communications on confidential items.
We've seen some other communication improvements in that regard here and so this may well be one of those opportunities to look here and see what might be done in the future, to find avenues by which we with communicate information that may be quite sensitive and have legal requirements or obligations attached to it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm happy to talk with her more about that and get more information about Mactung in a timely manner.
The GNWT decided to try to market the Mactung property with the Cantung mine site with the federal government but all attempts seemed to have failed. Can the Minister explain what is going on with proposed sale of the Mactung property and when the taxpayers of the NWT can expect to recover their investment? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a joint decision made, quite some time ago now, between GNWT and Canada to attempt to market those two properties, Cantung and Mactung together. And that effort was underway to have a joint effort and a joint RFP out seeking to seek prequalified proposals. I believe that is the item that the Member was mentioning earlier with respect to the publication on the Supreme Court of British Columbia's court filing with respect to that not having yielded any positive results. But there do continue to be discussions by the GNWT, and we are stay remaining hopeful that ultimately a sale will be concluded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I'm actually getting more information out of the Cabin Radio story than I guess what I've heard so for about what the process is going to be, but.
These Mactung and Cantung properties are 140 kilometres away from each other by air and 700 kilometres by road. It was always extremely unlikely that some buyer would ever take these on as some sort of a viable mining operation without significant concessions and subsidies.
So can the Minister tell us what incentives, concessions, or subsidies will be offered to sell the Mactung property this time around? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had it described to me that when the decision was made, before my time here, to purchase the property, that it was thought to, in fact, be a good maneuver and, indeed, that it would in fact not have difficulty being sold. So regardless of that, at this point I will still note, Mr. Speaker, that the two properties, although being 140 kilometres apart, were jointly owned previously. They remain high grade Tungsten properties. Geopolitical events and the critical minerals and metals discussions suggest that there may well be a good opportunity right now for these particular properties.
There are no subsidies being offered, concessions, or incentives. There is, of course, the mineral incentive policy that we have that applies for anyone who might be seeking to apply in order for some supports when they go out to do exploration. But as far as the sale and the RFP process, that is not subject to subsidies, concessions, or incentives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that.
In my view, the Cantung and Mactung saga is another example of postdevolution mismanagement of our resources. When I asked the Minister for lessons learned last time, she spoke about hope for a solid proponent to take over the property. I'm going to try the question again, perhaps a little bit differently.
Can the Minister explain what lessons have been learned about financial security and public liabilities from the Cantung and Mactung saga? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, we are characterizing the events differently. I wouldn't characterize it as a saga nor would I say that the story has ended or is closed. As I had mentioned at the beginning, there are still confidential discussions underway. I am still hopeful to have a positive update here at the end that might close out the chapter. And at that point whether there are lessons to be learned in one direction or another, that would be the time to do that consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
