Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is really on access to land, Commissioner’s land for other purposes, including agricultural and access to biomass. I’m wondering what the department is doing. There seems to be developing interest, certainly standing interest for agriculture and developing interest for biomass. I believe MACA is working possibly with other governments and I’m wondering what the status of things are, when we can expect to see some improved access for those renewable resources. Thank you.

Minister of MACA.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If its Commissioner’s land within a municipal boundary, then it will be just a matter of them rezoning it for agricultural. Commissioner’s land outside of municipal boundaries we really haven’t been asked by anyone about accessing, but the opportunity is always there. I mean, if its Commissioner’s land and they go through the proper process, then the opportunity is there. Thank you.

Just for my clarity here, is there a standard distance that municipal land extends from highways and has the department classified Commissioner’s land outside of municipalities in terms of its agricultural potential? Thank you.

No, we haven’t.

Thank you. Is there a formula for Commissioner’s land along highways? Is there a setback that is Commissioner’s land where we have a territorial highway or any guidance there? Thank you.

I don’t have that information handy, but I will commit to the Member that I’ll check with our lands administration. I’ll also check with Transportation as far as a setback goes. Thank you.

Just getting back to my original question, I’m not feeling like I have an answer yet. What is the department doing to improve access for agricultural and biomass harvesting activities? A couple of activities are increasing in importance for us.

We’re not denying anyone access to Commissioner’s land. We just haven’t, as I stated before, had much of an appetite from the public to do it. I’m sure that as we go forward with biomass, be it wood and agriculture, I’m sure if the demand is there, then we will have to take steps to address it because we could see this becoming quite an issue in the future. Thank you.

It’s certainly an issue for agricultural land and I believe the lead might be ITI, which might be why you haven’t heard about it, but it speaks to the stovepipes that we’re continually dealing with. So I guess I just ask the Minister to look into that and see if there’s an opportunity to help out our public who are interested in accessing more agricultural land and I’ll leave it at that. Thank you.

I will assure the Member that we’ll do some research and see what we can find out and then I’ll get back to the Member with some of our findings. Thank you.

Thank you. Next I have Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On land administration I just have a question for the Minister. Is this the budget after the majority of the land, like the taxing and leasing of land, has been transferred to municipalities like hamlets, towns, cities, villages, whatever?

MACA still continues to do the bulk of it. It hasn’t been transferred. Thank you.

I’m wondering if that’s the intention to transfer this administration to the municipalities/

It is our intention in the future to transfer the responsibility of administration of lands to the communities, within community boundaries.

Can the Minister tell me if once a municipality, whether they be a band government or just become incorporated or an actual settlement that has become a hamlet, which is the case in both of the communities I represent, is there the option of setting the land administration and the taxing or the leasing of land aside and still continue with the rest of the agreement of transfer?

The community would just have to enact the proper bylaws and then they would have authority to set the writs.

I guess I’m wondering the opposite. If the communities would have an option to leave this exactly where it is, under the control of MACA, and transfer the rest of the community transfer process, just setting aside this issue for now, parking it for now until the communities are more comfortable to take over land administration.

The communities can take everything else on, they’re not obligated to take the lands.

Next I have Mr. Hawkins.

Deputy Minister Aumond.