Okay, moving along to 6-26, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, School of Community Government, grants and contributions, grants, $830,000.

Okay, moving along to 6-28, 6-29, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just wondering about the half million extra again that we are putting into contract services, and looking below I assume this is largely for property assessment, so surely to goodness Municipal and Community Affairs has that expertise within its department. I mean, why do we hire professionals? We want these people to be doing the work.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.

It sounds like there is some tragic circumstances here, but it doesn’t detract from the lack of succession planning, which is obviously gone here. I mean, we have to create an emergency before we work and plan in these areas, and I think this is the sort of thing we are starting to see in more places as we go through this budget, so I am glad it is happening now, but I hope in other areas, other divisions and departments, we don’t have to wait for that situation to develop.

I wanted to ask one other question. The new amended Commissioner’s Land Act has just come into force on February 14

th

with its land security

provisions for leasing and so on. Where are we at

with that? Do we have regulations developed and are staff on top of implementing that now? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bromley, no more questions? We are on page 6-29, Municipal and Community Affairs, activity summary, lands administration, operations expenditure summary. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have got more of a technical thing for the Minister and his deputy; hopefully they can answer it for me. During the last constituency visit to Fort Liard, I had a couple of constituents who do get land taxes, they get land taxes on the land they are on but they don’t know if they actually own the land. Anywhere else in the world you pay taxes on land that you own, so they ask me to raise the issue, so I thought it was a good opportunity. Perhaps the Minister can answer that. I know that people that lease land, that actually have the deed to the lease of the land, they are actually paying the same taxes as these people who don’t own the land, so they are kind of confused about what that process is about. They never actually bought the land. If they are paying the same amount as owning the land, why isn’t that opportunity there for them to own it or lease it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister McLeod.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. We would have to get the details and then we would have to get the details of the land. We don’t know if it is Commissioner’s land or if it is Indian Affairs branch land, so once we have, if the Member could provide us with some details, then I would commit to the Member we will follow up on it and we will have an answer back to him very shortly. Thank you.

That is what I expected. It is a little bit more technical in nature and I will be glad to provide a written internal memorandum to the Ministers’ office. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Next on my list, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question here. I recall, I think it was last year, it may have been two years ago, but certainly I think both when we were discussing NWT Housing Corporation and Municipal and Community Affairs, we talked about land ownership issues for the Housing Corporation to have ownership of lands on which they wanted to build houses in various communities. There was some work I think that MACA was doing at that time in terms of I think making things a little easier and getting things

settled. I just wondered if I can get an update on where that issue is at. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Aumond.

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the deputy minister for that. My other question has to do with a newspaper article that I saw a little while ago. It had to do with the selling of a parcel of land to the Norman Wells Land Corporation. I’m curious as to the process. My understanding is that at least some of this land, if not all of it, was within the block land transfer for the Town of Norman Wells. I was curious as to how the government could basically sell land out from underneath the nose of the Town, so to speak. Could I get an explanation as to what kind of a process applies, if it is conceivable that the government can sell land from within any community’s block land transfer? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, the folks that purchase the land followed all the process as they were laid out. This particular piece of land is outside the community’s boundaries. Its block land transfer was outside the boundary. They are in the process of going to lease the land from the Commissioner, but we have had a lot of back and forth with the community and with the Norman Wells Land Corporation. They have followed the process as we have laid out. It is not like we sold or leased the land out from under them. There is still quite a bit of Commissioner’s land within town boundaries that, if they choose to, they can access it. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. I am still not totally clear if the land that was sold was within the Town of Norman Wells block land transfer. I will try another example. If, for instance, in the area of the block land transfer for the City of Yellowknife -- it extends I think out to the Yellowknife River -- if there was a parcel of land somewhere before the ending of the block land transfer boundary for the City of Yellowknife, if somebody wanted to purchase that land from the GNWT, would they be able to do that? Thank you.