Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Lands with devolution.
Mr. Speaker, our government assumed increasingly authority for the responsible management of lands in the NWT, including the administration of mining and exploration land use. Would the Minister outline for the Assembly what those responsibilities are? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Minister responsible for Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll try to do it from here but it's probably going to miss some few things that we do at the Department of Lands.
As the Member for Thebacha was talking about, we're trying to get the regulations done for the so we can then do the public lands enforcement. We're modernizing the land use only policy, revised project assessment policy. We talked about securities, project assessment. We were working on industry surface review. So we're working out there, land use and sustainability. I'm missing one, sorry. I had it written down here.
We're also doing a review of the securities. We are working with that. We have reached out to the Department of or the Chamber of Mines to coordinate it, and we have one interested company that's specifically asking to do that. We are also doing enforcement. And most importantly, we are trying to deal with rightsbased cabins and unauthorized occupancy, but. And then we also do land use plans working with Indigenous governments and the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Specific to the Nechalacho project, could the Minister outline the current status of the Nechalacho land use permit? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question.
The department executed a sevenyear industrial lease for Cheetah to support the demonstration mining project on April 23, 2021. Cheetah's now seeking a potential for a 30year lease for mining proposals as they are working towards the mining phase of the project. The department has been working collaboratively with both Cheetah and the Department of Justice to ensure that draft release continues to protect the GNWT for liabilities related to the proposed plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's my understanding that we have we are in the discussions with Cheetah Resources about securing a bankable longterm mining lease. This is an essential requirement for any mining project to ensure it has secure tenure and protect its multimillion dollar investment. Could the Minister advise us on the status of the discussion? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for the question. So we've been going on for about two years from as me from being the Minister. There's been constant communication. As I said today, we did have a productive meeting with Cheetah this morning or this afternoon at 12, me and Minister Wawzonek and the Premier. We had a conversation with them. We're getting really close to hopefully coming up with a final agreement. But at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we protect our environment for future residents. It's about our children, our grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren. But in the conversations with Cheetah, I think we're very, very close, and I appreciated Mr. Atkins coming all the way back or all the way up from Australia to have these conversations and hopefully we can have closure to this and move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If necessary, would the Minister commit to advising the Assembly on future progress in terms of enabling this project to proceed? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm more than willing to meet with committee to give an update once we finalize it. I don't want to talk about the work and the process it's in right now. I want to be able to get a final closure to it, and then I'm more than willing to bring that information to committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
