Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the easy answer to why Behchoko is funded the way it is is because historically it was considered to be Rae-Edzo and was viewed as one community. The community had desired that it remain that way. It's not an issue that has been raised to us in terms of changing how the funding flowed, and it's possible we could have that discussion, if there's a desire. Whereas, Detah is a separate community from Yellowknife. Detah has funding that comes from two different sources. The federal government does provide money through the Yellowknife Dene there, and we also provide dollars for the community to deliver our services, as we do to the City of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his comments. If you look at the community, the government they have there is new and they have policies in place. We want to do the best we can for our communities, so that is the agreement we have with them. So I would like to ask the Minister again, can the Minister meet with my community to review this, to meet with the Tlicho Government so we can discuss the future funding for the communities of Behchoko and Edzo? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we'd be very much interested to sit down with communities and the leadership and talk to this issue. This is not an issue that has been flagged for us up to now, so we'd really have to discuss what the complications would be of dividing the resources that come to this community. It would involve setting up a whole new administrative system. So there is going to be extra costs incurred by going this route. But we'd certainly welcome the opportunity to sit down and talk to the people of the Tlicho. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Lafferty.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, they have not brought up this issue for a long time, but since the new government has been in place since August 4th, that issue has been discussed again and is a concern. I'm setting up a meeting this week with the Minister, but I would like to bring this issue to them. Funding is very important and that is something that we need to discuss and we need to invest into our community, which is very important because it's important for the people of our community. Are you able to set a date? We will have a meeting sometime this week. Is this week good for the Minister? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to get back to the Member to confirm whether we can fit in a meeting this week. I would also like to point out that this is an opportune time to review the funding and how the process is dealt with with the communities of Behchoko and Edzo. We are reviewing our community government funding policy, so we welcome the comments made by the Member and the leadership in those communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week the Minister of MACA announced the long-awaited land transfer to the City of Yellowknife. To put it into perspective, the City of Yellowknife had requested five years' worth of land in order to do fair, reasonable and balanced development in our city. Our city is growing by leaps and bounds, Mr. Speaker, but this Minister put a two-year freeze on this land and only gave the city half of the land requested.

Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is, why did the Minister of MACA approve only two years when the city requested five years' worth of land? Why did he put a two-year freeze on this land? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we had actually requested that the city come forward with five years of land needs identified on a map.

We also requested that the Akaitcho people come forward and identify, on a map, areas that they were interested in. Then we tried to look at areas that did not have significant overlap. We tried to look at areas where we could release some lands that would not be too controversial. When we tried to map that out ourselves on an overlay, we decided that five years was too long. We had initially considered a five-year freeze. We realized that that would be too long of a time period to freeze land in this area. Then we had discussions with Aboriginal Affairs to see where things were at in terms of negotiations. Then we came to the conclusion that two years was probably a more realistic time frame for this to be settled.

The amount of land that we transferred, we feel, would be able to accommodate the city for two-and-a-half years. So we did freeze the land in this area for two years. There is still opportunity if there is the ability by the city and the Yellowknives to agree on parcels of land that they would like to see transferred over, the opportunity is still there. However, failing that, we will stick to the two-year time period. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, I will say on the agreement part, it's been my understanding -- and I would like to hear the Minster's correction on this -- that they have never seen eye to eye on all the land. I believe the Akaitcho wanted all the land. Mr. Speaker, at the request of MACA to come forward with a five-year plan, but they only approved half of that, sounds unfair. We have to note the land applications. How is he going to process them on two years plus a day, because there may be a flood of land requests? So I think the Minister has actually put the city in a limited, broke opportunity by freezing its fair and balanced position. Mr. Speaker, land was also left out of this reasonable application that it had homes on it. So those people are now put into limbo for just over two years. So, Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister doing to alleviate the concerns for those people who had land requests for their homes to be bought, but now it's been trapped up in this land freeze process? What is the Minister going to do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, the land identified for transfer has been conveyed to the city. We identified lands in that map that had existing leases. We identified lands for commercial leases. We identified lands for industrial purposes. We also identified lands for residential. All the other lands that are not on that map are considered to be available for the selection process that the Akaitcho is embarking on, and we will not be moving from that position, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in October, this Minister had said that they were going to make some clear decisions, but, unfortunately, I never thought that they would only go halfway. Mr. Speaker, he just said, earlier, that he requested five years. So why isn't this Minister making a decision and putting the city of Yellowknife's growth in jeopardy? Why is the Minister not making a clear decision for the City of Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure where the Member is getting his information from that we are not dealing with the Yellowknives' request for lands and not dealing with the growth issue. We have identified two years' worth of land; two-and-a-half years worth of land. There are several hundred residential lots that would be available for development. There is industrial land, there is commercial land. There is land that was previously occupied by people who leased it. We looked at it from a basis that there would be needs for two-and-a-half years addressed, and we are very confident that this is significant and will be enough for the city to deal with all their needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Hay River South.