Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you,Mr. Speaker. I have a return to oral question asked by Ms. Bisaro on February 9, 2015, regarding municipal information and privacy legislation.

On September 18, 2014, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs distributed a discussion paper to community governments and other stakeholders including the Standing Committee on Social Programs, the Standing Committee on Government Operations and the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure of the Legislative Assembly for comment. In addition, the discussion paper was made publicly available on MACA's website.

Through this consultation, MACA received responses from six community governments on the discussion paper. MACA is concerned that developing potential options based on this limited response will be problematic. Accordingly, the department is now engaging in personal interviews with senior community government staff in order to develop a broader perspective. The intention is to then work with the Municipal Access and Privacy Working Group to complete the survey of the feedback received from stakeholders. The report will be sent to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure and will be made available publically within the life of the 17th Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I am also mindful that at times community governments can be inundated with requests to engage on issues that the GNWT is attempting to advance. As a result, I feel it is important that MACA takes the necessary time to gather the appropriate information from community leaders, so I do appreciate the patience of the Member, this House and the Information and Privacy Commissioner as we continue to investigate this issue.

Once the summary feedback is completed, MACA will use the information to develop options to address the recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. I would like to welcome everybody here in the public gallery. Thank you for taking an interest in our proceedings here today.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is a follow-up on my Member’s statement regarding the issues out at Prelude Lake and the dangerous proliferation of unauthorized ice roads and the difficulty people are having navigating on it with their snowmobiles.

What regulations are in place to control and regulate the building of ice roads on NWT lakes, to make sure that roads are built and used rationally and safely for both people and the land? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Lands, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure what the regulations are. I would have to check with the Department of Transportation because I’m not quite sure what the regulations are. So, I will commit to working with Transportation and see what those regulations are and share that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Sorry for the confusion there. I should have stipulated Minister McLeod. I have been working with Minister McLeod on this and still some questions remain, but I understand that in fact we don’t have regulations, but I’ll wait for that to be confirmed.

People are being injured on Prelude Lake travelling to their cabins and homes by snowmobile because of the six-foot concrete-hard berms associated with roads that have appeared overnight and are basically chaotically placed on the lake.

I’m wondering what this Minister proposes to do before this issue arises again next winter as a land use issue, to regulate the building of private ice roads and ensure that Prelude Lake is safe for snowmobiling, both for recreational and commuting travel. Mahsi.

We will work with the Department of Transportation and ENR. I think we’ve already formed a working group, and we will attempt to find some resolution to this issue before next winter. In my correspondence with the Member, and conversations with the Member, he has been pointing out that it is getting to be quite an issue around some of the lakes with all the trails that are being made there. So, I’ll work closely with my colleagues and we’ll see if we can put a plan into place before the next winter season.

I appreciate the fast work of the Minister. The Minister recently held public meetings about recreational leasing regulations in several communities. This was a good initiative and I applaud it. Presumably, access roads on land and

ice would be part and parcel of any new rules regulating what may or may not be done by people holding recreational leases.

Did the Minister hear any references or concerns from the participants in these meetings about the building of ice or land roads to their leases, or casual users of the common concerns about interference from roads? Mahsi.

I have not heard personally, but I haven’t had an opportunity to review some of the comments that came back. But I would assume it would be a concern of a lot of residents out there, especially with so many people getting out on the land now and the ability to make trails to these lands. I know, back where I’m from, we have a few trails out to some of the cabins out there. There aren’t as many as around here because of the higher usage here. But I will review that, and again, I will relay that information on to the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Devolution legislation has not been reviewed at all by people as being referred to as having northern tools and things like that. We’ve heard “devolve” and “evolve.” Perhaps we should have “revolve.”

There seems to be a few legislative gaps in our Lands legislation that needs filling. Despite promises from our Premier, serious review will only occur when departments take it on. A new department in a supposedly democratic government guided by legislation with absolutely no vetting from the citizenry, that’s the Department of Lands.

When will the Minister begin the consultative process to make inherited legislation relevant, that the people of the Northwest Territories were promised, in a way that people were promised? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, that will happen. On the Lands side of it, we’ve inherited the Territorial Lands Act, which is a huge piece of work. We also are working with the Commissioner’s Lands Act that we had worked with previously. That is a huge undertaking, and I can commit to the Member and all Members of this House that that work, I think, in the life of this government anyway will have to do the initial work. The bigger piece is going to have to be done, I think, in the 18th Assembly, to amalgamate those two acts. It’s a huge undertaking, but it’s one that we’re aware of and one that has been brought to our attention, and the work is going to get started on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Abernethy. As I indicated in my statement, seniors are a valuable asset in the Northwest Territories and we know there is an expanding group of people. What is the Government of the Northwest Territories doing to improve the seniors’ quality of life in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister responsible for Seniors, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure there are enough minutes on the clock to outline all the things the Department of Health and Social Services in addition to the Housing Corp, Education, Culture and Employment and all the other departments are doing to support seniors. But I will go into a few of the items that the department is undertaking.

We do have Our Elders, Our Communities, which is a framework for action on improving the results for seniors in the Northwest Territories. Our Elders, Our Communities outlines priority areas that will be used to guide future programming and design for older adults to assist them to remain in their communities for as long as possible. Some of the priority areas that we’re working on include healthy and active aging, home and community care services, integrated and coordinated services across the continuum, caregiver supports, elder-responsive communities, accessible and current information as well as some sustainable factors, Mr. Speaker. I can go on and on but I’ll defer to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I could have asked this question to several Ministers, as the Minister indicated, but my question to the Minister responsible for Seniors is: What is the connection? Is there a committee that gets all the departments together that are linking seniors together that have seniors issues, whether it’s the Department of Finance for taxation, whether it’s Health, whether it’s MACA, whether it’s Housing? Is there a group of people who get together and discuss seniors specifically? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A number of requests do come to me from organizations like the NWT Seniors’ Society, which I absolutely share with the individual Ministers responsible. But we also have the Ministers’ Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet where there’s an opportunity for us to discuss issues across multiple departments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My question is about that committee. Does that committee get together on a regular basis to talk about seniors along with the

Minister responsible for Seniors, to actually just sit down and discuss, or do they come up just on specific topics? Does this group get together regularly regarding seniors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet meets on a frequent but not scheduled basis and we talk about topics that have come up either in the House or directly from other individuals from outside of the government itself, and we’re topic based. We have had issues or topics specific to seniors but we don’t have a seniors standing agenda item.

As the Minister responsible for Seniors, like I said, I do have a lot of different groups, different seniors’ societies coming to me on a regular basis with issues that are cross-departmental and I do bring those forward to the respective departments and work with them to get responses back to the individuals who are looking for answers.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to get all of the questions in because there are a lot of issues that we deal with as Regular Members here on this side. I guess my question would be concerning funding.

Has the department or the Minister looked at the funding that we give to seniors, whether it’s through senior groups, whether it’s through fuel subsides? Are we looking at expanding funding that we give to seniors?

When you add all the programs together, whether it’s housing or education or health and social services, there is significant money going into this particular area. I will commit to getting some more quantified, sort of, results or numbers for the Member and provide that to him as soon as I can.