Thank you, colleagues. I appreciate the opportunity to give my Member’s statement here today. For the past four years, I pushed for sound recreational land use planning in the Yellowknife block of land transfer area surrounding Walsh and Banting lakes and beyond. We had a premature draft plan released by MACA and a promise for a completed policy framework by this March 31st , but thanks to recent and

outrageous action by our federal land management partners, we can forget about that document or any worthwhile plan for now.

Walsh and Banting lease holders are steaming over AANDC’s recent granting of both hunting and fishing leases on the lakes. According to reports, building materials have piled up on the new lease site with a busy construction season in store on leases that are temporary leases for five years of casual occupation.

The MACA Minister has described a close and consultative relationship with the feds over land permitting. At my urging, he wrote to the federal Minister in 2012 to stress the need for information sharing, co-operative action, and enforcement to discourage squatting. Despite glowing descriptions of consultations to keep both sides in the loop, our government was apparently blindsided by

constituent report of the new leases, 85 new leases across the NWT with many more applications in this area, a federal track record of zero enforcement on squatting and compliance with lease conditions. What is the point of our new plan when the feds throw in a highly suspect game-changing lease rampage?

Along with the residents of Walsh and Banting, I’m fed up, Mr. Speaker. Coming up to devolution, this government is afraid to breathe on land issues such as Protected Areas Strategy. On the federal side, there is disregard and apparently even contempt for our efforts at responsible land management. The Minister says the feds knew we had a new recreational lease management plan in the wings, yet they toss off new leases in the exact area where we’re trying to manage responsibly.

Just as our plan was to be finalized, the Minister now acknowledges we need yet a new density study. With the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, this continuing alienation of land rights in the absence of a claims settlement is insulting, arrogant, and crippling to the prospects of a just settlement. Enough is enough.

I ask the MACA Minister: How could the feds have so contemptuously disregarded our announced actions and saddled us with these unplanned tenures in the months leading up to land management transfer?

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.

---Unanimous consent granted

With my colleagues’ co-operation again for returning to the next item on the orders, I will be asking the Minister’s assurance that he will make clear that come devolution day, every hunting and fishing leaseholder will be rigorously held to conditions for no creation of permanent structures. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made the comment regarding the employment rates in Fort Providence. My question is to the Minister of ITI.

In the Deh Cho riding – of course we are located in the southwestern part of the NWT – we pride ourselves on being located to the gateway to the North, gateway to Denendeh. The big thing that we come across when we drive the highway, of course,

is the iconic Deh Cho Bridge. This government has invested millions of dollars, and we need to ensure that we begin at some moment in time to enjoy the benefits of the investments that we’ve made and at least enjoy the major infrastructure costs of the bridge.

So my question to the Minister of ITI is: What are some of the plans that the department is working on to try to capitalize on the Deh Cho Bridge as a major tourist attraction? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had started out working with the community on plans for a community celebration for the Deh Cho Bridge. We hope to be involved in that ceremony this summer. We had talked to NWT Tourism about promoting the bridge in their literature, and we want to continue to work with the community of Fort Providence in advancing tourism initiatives in the area.

We believe that there is a lot of potential there with the bridge, and I’ve mentioned previously as a Regular Member and as Minister, it would be a good idea for us to work toward some type of bison interpretative centre close to the community of Fort Providence to take advantage of the new traffic that’s going to be coming across the Deh Cho Bridge. Thank you.

Following up on that, there are three other communities, including Enterprise, Hay River Reserve, Kakisa, and my riding. I want to get an indication from the Minister, what are some other ways the department is working to ensure we develop a capacity for promoting tourism? Also at the same time, there are some opportunities that some entrepreneurs are beginning to raise interest in, and I wanted to know how the department is planning to support capacity. Mahsi.

We are working very hard on an Economic Opportunities Strategy. We have been working toward that. We have to establish an action plan by this fall. I hear the Member. We have to tackle the high unemployment rates in some of our smaller communities. The communities in the Member’s riding are of particular concern.

We have lots of opportunity here if you look at forestry, tourism, agriculture, and we’ve also got, as the Member mentioned, Canadian Zinc mine. We’ve got the recent significant discovery by Lone Pine near Fort Liard.

So there are opportunities there, and we have to work in partnership with the communities in the Deh Cho region to advance those types of opportunities. We also have to work with Education, Culture and Employment on training opportunities for residents

there to take advantage of the jobs that are coming. There are going to be opportunities.

When we were out at Prairie Creek Mine last summer with the Premier and a couple of other Ministers, we saw firsthand some of the young people from the communities in the riding working at Prairie Creek getting that type of training, and it was really nice to see. We need to see much more of that around the Territories to address the high unemployment rates in our small communities. Thank you.

I wanted to ask a question in terms of partnership and working with communities. I think it’s essential to ensure that lays the basis of the relationship, especially with communities that are basically categorized as have-nots. One of the recent initiatives that have come about is the initiative to establish a wood pellet plant in my riding. What kind of support capacity is the department undertaking to ensure that it does come to a successful reality and is one day operational? Mahsi.

We certainly look forward to the day where we can have a biomass facility in the Member’s riding. We are supportive of that happening. We’ve worked with the proponent there for, I believe, close to two years. We’re hopeful that at some point in time we will see that plant go ahead so that we can harvest some biomass in the Member’s region and other regions around the Northwest Territories and produce biomass here in the NWT. So we continue to work toward that.

At the end of the day, investment decisions will have to be made by the proponent. There are a number of agreements that the proponent would have to come up with with the various community groups. It is all about partnerships and building solid relationships. I think they’ve worked hard at doing that, and we’ve worked alongside them on trying to see this proposal come to fruition. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is encouraging to hear from the Minister that one of the steps that he begins to perhaps contemplate is an immediate step of an action plan to ensure that the Economic Development Strategy moves forward. I want to see if there could be assurances from the Minister that he’ll commit to ensure that some initiatives that are badly needed in the have-not communities, like the communities that I represent in the riding, will happen.

Would the Minister commit to ensure that the partnership will continue, especially with the wood pellet industry initiative that’s ongoing? Mahsi.

I give the Member and other Members the assurance that the Economic

Opportunities Strategy is built on solid relationships and establishing those relationships and ensuring that the Northwest Territories economy is going to be one that is diversified.

We will have big projects and opportunities like we do in the Sahtu and perhaps on the offshore, but we can’t lose sight of the smaller things, the things that are more important, and that is small business, tourism, agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Those I think will be key as we move the Economic Opportunities Strategy forward because those smaller things have much more opportunity to get people employed in the smaller communities.

At ITI we continue to support the traditional economy. We think there’s a future in trapping. We support programs like Take a Kid Trapping and the Harvesters Assistance Program, and we continue to do that. Fur continues to fetch high prices at market, and that’s money and jobs that get right back into the smaller communities here in the NWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We were unaware that they were going to be putting these leases out. Of course, we were quite concerned with all the work that we were doing, as far as the density study goes, around those areas. As far as the public process, I mean, I can’t speak to how AANDC does their business, but I think we would have all known in this building

today if there was a public process as to the leasing of their lots. I can’t speak to what they were doing. I can only speak to what we knew and what we didn’t know.

Obviously, that’s not good. A government-to-government relationship you’d expect a lot better than that, and I think we also have a responsibility to try and be aware of what our residents are being exposed to or not.

As the Minister’s December 2012 letter to AANDC Minister John Duncan said, with the signing of the Devolution AIP, it’s more important now than ever before that our two organizations work together, and I appreciate the Minister saying that.

The Minister’s letter briefed the federal Minister on the work underway to develop the recreational leasing policy framework. But what is the explanation from the federal government on why these leases were granted in the very area we are trying to bring order to?

In a letter received back from Minister Duncan at the time, he reinforced our need to work together. That’s why we were quite surprised at the number of leases that were letting out. I followed that up with a letter to the new minister, Minister Valcourt, explaining to him our disappointment and the fact that all these leases were let while we were doing all this work and how we thought that might undermine the work that we’re doing.

I have not received a response back from Minister Valcourt. The letter just went out recently. We have asked the Minister to cease any applications that are being taken for federal land until we can do our work. I am waiting for a response. Once I get that, I will share it with Members of the House.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. The information that I received from our Minister indicates that AANDC has a heap of applications on file, so the potential is large for a lot more of these to be happening in the area that we’re trying to manage responsibly.

I appreciate hearing that the Minister has been in touch with the federal government on this and let him know that we’d like no further leases. I understand there is no response yet, but does the Minister agree that the next recreational leases granted on lands should, in fact, be decided by this government and not the federal government, given the pending devolution situation?

We were doing all the work because we knew that devolution was coming and we would have to have responsibility for all Crown land that is transferred over to Commissioner’s land. We had updated our regulations. We had done a lot of good density study work, and our regulations would have applied to any new leases that may be coming.

I do tend to agree with the Member that with devolution coming we would have assumed that they would have put any new leases on hold until after devolution, and then those applications could then come to the Commissioner and be regulated under our Commissioner’s Land Act. Again, we’ve expressed our disappointment with the fact that they let all these leases, and are eagerly waiting for the response to see if they will discontinue any lease applications.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again for that response. My constituents include the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and many of the Akaitcho people. Every new land alienation in the Chief Drygeese territory makes it more complex and difficult to finally conclude a just land settlement for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. The federal government seems to interpret their fiduciary role here in a very strange way. I am surprised YKDFN hasn’t thrown up their hands and told the federal government they will see them in court.

If YKDFN does decide to go to legal action to halt this erosion of their land base, will this government voice its support for their assertion of rights? Mahsi.

It’s up to the YKDFN to use whatever avenues that are available to them. If that includes court action, then that would be a decision they would have to make.

We as a government and as a department will use the avenues that are available to us. We have tried to work very close with the YKDFN in identifying some of their traditional areas out there too. They have been very receptive to working with us. They were just made aware recently, I think, of the federal leases that were being let on Crown land in their territory.

It was a difficult question for me to answer. I’m not going to try. They use whatever avenues are available to them. We use the avenues that are available to us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.