Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Well, there would be a need for additional resources to administer it, but also there have to be agreements with community and aboriginal governments about the availability of land. But I will leave that aside for discussion in another venue with other departments.

I want to ask the Minister a question about a funding arrangement with the federal government in the last six to eight months. The GNWT and the community governments have entered into a lot of different agreements with the federal government under gas tax and with Northern Strategy money. That has seen some extra dollars coming in for various infrastructure programs. I'm wondering what portion of that, Mr. Chairman, -- I'm assuming that most of them are one-time funding -- or what does this mean having a new government and what parts of MRIF or communities' gas tax money that have to be renegotiated and, if that's the case, what does the Minister plan to do to meet with his counterpart to continue some of this going? Is there any plan to talk about this with his other counterparts in provincial governments? Could he just give us an update on that? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is, and has been, a lot of progress in the area of securing new dollars for the communities in the last couple of years. We have the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Program where we secured $16 million for the communities to deal with infrastructure mostly in the area of water and sewer. This money is considered one-time and we would like, of course, to see that continue. We'll have more discussion on that with the new government at the provincial and territorial Ministers' meetings.

The gas tax is a very welcome amount of money of $37.5 million that is committed for a five-year period. The unknown portion, I guess, is that there was also some commitment or discussion around the money that would flow through the gas tax program after the five-year period was up, and that was supposed to be ongoing at $15 million a year and we have to follow up to see how secure that is. We will be doing that as we move forward and have our first opportunity to discuss it with the Minister.

The land tax to the communities is something that was agreed upon in this House to transfer over and we have been doing that. This is our second year.

The community public infrastructure funding, which was historically around $17 million, only earmarked for the non-tax-based communities, has been brought up to $28

million a year and is now available to the non-tax-based and the tax-based. This is the first year that we will be providing money to the tax-based municipalities.

The Northern Strategy money of $35 million is, of course, one-time funding that can be drawn down over a three-year period. So there is quite a significant amount of money that has been flowing to us as a government and we were, in turn, transferring it over to the communities. Most of it is ongoing except for the Northern Strategy, and we have to confirm whether the gas tax commitment is going to be something that will stay, and also we'd like to have further discussions on the MRIF.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one more question to squeeze in there. On the MRIF money of $16 million, and I think there's additional, I mean, the GNWT puts into that fund, as well. I'm just wondering about this five-year commitment because there are discussions about the fact that some of the provinces signed a five-year deal on day care with the federal government and the federal government is announcing that they will want to introduce something new. So I guess my question is, how solid is that five-year deal? It might be the case that the new government might want to come out with a different regime for community funding and such. So I guess I'd like to know how firm that five-year deal is. I would certainly encourage, I mean, there are so many things on the list that we need to take to the federal government, but I would encourage the Minister to see if it is at all possible to continue having this level of funding coming into our communities. It took so long to get there and we would hate to see that not continue, Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, we have in all instances where we have funding that we mentioned, the MRIF, the gas tax, the land tax, the community public infrastructure, the Northern Strategy, all the money is committed. It's agreed on. We have agreements in place. They're rock solid. The only unknown is after the five-year agreement expires. We had commitment for the gas tax to extend beyond that at $15 million a year ongoing. We're not totally comfortable that it's going to stay there. We're not sure; we don't know. The MRIF is something that was in agreement for five years and that's something we'd like to pick up again and see if we can negotiate a further agreement along the same lines. But for the five-year process for all our initiatives, all our commitments that we've included, they're all committed and they're very stable.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. I have Mr. Braden next. Mr. Braden.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. This department is, I think overall, doing a good job of assuming a growing mantle of responsibility, and it's with some confidence that I look forward to going through this budget and the business plan. That is not to say they can take it easy, because there will be a lot of attention focused on the evolution of municipal government and our oversight and our stewardship of how communities can operate.

An area that I wanted to go into, Mrs. Groenewegen and I think Ms. Lee might have touched on it, and it is these, I won't call them windfalls, but these substantial cash pots, Mr. Chairman, that have come our way or at least the prospect of them. We always have to remind ourselves, for instance, that the $5 million over 10-year socio-economic impact fund is merely a promise; a big one. I sure want it to happen. But it is still there and I still believe we should go forward planning on the assumption that it will happen. There's $35 million in gas tax revenue over the next five years; $35 million in Northern Strategy money.

The aspect of this, especially where this department comes into play, is in having some oversight function, if you will, to see where the discretion and the jurisdiction of the communities comes into play, where our own mandates and jurisdiction come into play. In looking for areas where, obviously, there may be overlap or duplication in some thinking and planning again in jurisdiction or, conversely, Mr. Chairman, some major gaps in what could or should be good places to spend money.

So I wanted to ask the department if, of course assuming that it agrees with me that it has a front-line function with communities and that there is a lot of money coming into play in the next little while, how does it propose to go about this coordination and hopefully collaboration that we can undertake with the communities, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm not sure where we would play a role in the $500 million that was brought forward as part of the pipeline discussions. I'm not sure, actually, how that money's going to flow. I don't think it's definite yet.

The money that has been earmarked or the new money that has come forward, the gas tax, the MRIF, the CPI, the land tax, the Northern Strategy funding, is all flowing forward as part of a couple of initiatives, I guess. First of all, we are committed to transferring the responsibility of capital infrastructure to the communities. We want the communities to be able to make their own decisions. This is all part of the initiative that we've called a New Deal for community governments.

As part of that, we did an analysis, and I don't think too many other jurisdictions have done this or are doing this, but what we've done is we conducted an infrastructure deficit analysis in both the tax-based and the non-tax-based communities. That gave us a real clear picture, or at least a very good understanding of where we were in terms of meeting the community needs in the areas of infrastructure. In the tax-based communities it was reported back to us that we were meeting...What was it?

A little over 62, a little over 60 percent, 62 percent of the needs is what we were addressing. It wasn't even that high in the non-tax-based communities. We had to use that information to sit down with the federal government to explain to them that we had significant needs. Other jurisdictions in Canada were using, I mean, were bringing forward the same arguments, except we had backup information. This money is all practically earmarked towards dealing with that issue to dealing with the infrastructure deficit needs in the

communities. It's a significant amount of money, but it's also not close to what we need in the communities. There are new regulatory requirements in a lot of our communities for water and sewer. For an example, in Yellowknife we know the city needs at least $10 million to upgrade their systems. Inuvik is in the same boat and same area of need for upgrading their infrastructure. So there is a lot of need in terms of infrastructure and these are a couple of the initiatives we've put together to try to deal with that. How we fit in with the $500 million, we'll have to wait and see.

Mahsi, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Okay. So what I've gathered, then, is that the department is not taking any proactive position at this time on any kind of coordination or broad oversight function. I didn't hear that. I heard basically an inventory of where the needs and the responsibilities are going to be happening, but no direct...as I say, really a source of proactive moves to get into coordination. Okay.

Another area that I wanted to talk about, Mr. Chairman, was in regard to squatters and the unauthorized occupation of land, especially in the Yellowknife area with recreational properties. This has been a chronic and cumulative situation that hasn't really bothered anybody to any great extent, Mr. Chairman. It seems to be one of these things that goes on without anybody challenging to any great extent the unauthorized use of land. But in the meantime, those people who have recreational leases continue to pay their leases and their taxes and wonder what's going on when somebody else is not getting, or when others are basically getting away with illegal or unauthorized occupation. So I know that in the past, in fact, even in the previous Assembly, Mr. Chairman, this was an issue that Mr. McLeod's predecessor undertook some action in and it would seem to get to a certain point and then it would die, it would drop off, and we wouldn't really see a resolution to the situation. So I'm wondering where the department stands on this chronic issue with unauthorized land occupation, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, first of all, I just want to comment on taking a coordinated approach to some of the issues that are happening in the municipalities with this new money. I want to make sure it's clear that we are working with the municipalities. The municipalities are the frontline people and we are providing the support and we are working on a number of things that would allow us to take a strategic approach. We are working with the communities to develop transition plans, and also as part of some of the funding requirements from the federal government, we are working towards each community to develop an integrated sustainability plan. That's something we're going to have to do in the next while. So we are doing a number of things in the area of coordinating some of the transition that's happening with the communities.

As to the issue of people on lands that are with no tenure, I have been advised by the Conflict of Interest Commissioner that I may have a conflict as I own hunting cabins that I use for hunting and so the questions have to be referred to the Premier.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod, for referring the question to the Honourable Joe Handley. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very briefly, I'll just outline what has happened up to now and where we're going with this. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has had a number of complaints over the years from people about squatters on Commissioner's land. Surveys have been done, aerial surveys. Some cabins have been posted. MACA has met with the Yellowknives chiefs and with DIAND to try and have a coordinated approach to this. MACA also intends to implement a public relations campaign to educate the public about it and are developing a revised policy framework to address how to deal with these existing trespassers, as well as with issues around aboriginal rights and title over land. Quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, there has been some difficulty with the Akaitcho who take a different view about rights to the land, and so have some Metis from the Yellowknife area. So there are some issues to be worked out yet. In the longer term, it's MACA's intention to review the Area Development Act and its regulations, including the Yellowknife watershed development areas regulations. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Mr. Braden, as time has expired, we've got no further Members on the list for general comments. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm wondering on one point regarding the Minister's acknowledgement of potential conflict there. When did the Minister become aware that he could potentially be in conflict, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, we brought this to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, I believe, was it before Christmas? Sometime just before Christmas and we had a report back early this year and we brought it to the Premier's attention and he assumed the responsibility for this area.