Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if the Minister could advise me as to the status of land set aside for Indian housing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure about that. My understanding was the band land was used for a lot of housing that went up. My understanding is the Housing Corporation had some units on some band land and there was a question as to the ownership of the land, and those units were then -- they weren't reverted back to the band. I think they wrote most of them off because they were a lot of older units that were actually 1968 Indian housing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask the Minister on lot rentals and that. Again, I recognize that this is not a line object here, on our budget, but again, same with the previous speaker, a lot of people are wondering about the change and the high cost of renting lots as opposed -- that will never become ownership or free title land until after the land claim is settled, from my understanding.

I'm wondering why that model is being used, the lot rental model, by this department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if I could ask the Member if he's speaking of lands within the community that are selected as part of the interim land withdrawal, that the Aboriginal government negotiating the claim is eventually going to get ownership of and we're charging rent in the meantime? If I can just get the Member to clarify that, I'd appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you. I didn't want to get too deep into these non-budget questions. However, for clarification, what I'm discovering is that individuals that were leasing because they don't have ownership of the lots did not attain ownership through a previous process -- there's no more ownership process now -- but then ended up on a leased, piece of leased land which has now become a rental land. So individuals are actually renting the piece of land for 10 per cent of the value of the piece of land that they're renting. So it's quite an extreme high cost, and many people can't afford it, so people are just going into arrears very quickly. So that's, I guess, that's for clarification, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that was as my response to the previous speaker's question, I talked about modernizing our policies, and I'd be more than happy to sit down with committee and get their input into some of the work that we've been doing, give an update on some of the work that we've been doing. That may answer a lot of the questions that they may have. So, I mean, I'll put that offer out there, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Underneath the resource management unit there, on page 305, and then looking at the language on 304, is there funding within that annual budget there to have an annual review of land tenures, land administration, on an annual basis? Take the Sahtu, for example, would the Sahtu Land Claim Department and other municipalities that have an annual lands administration workshop, if you want to call it that, is there funding within this budget for those types of management systems?

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister McLeod.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that's just part of our ongoing work with all the inspections that we do after we got the Department of Lands formed in 2014. I would like to see us do a complete inventory of all the different lands that are out there. I'd like to say we're still learning the process, but we've been almost two years now. We'll put something together and make it part of my commitment to Member Beaulieu on giving the committee a briefing. Thank you. It's part of our ongoing work that we do, and we do the inspections and see what, try to catalog as much of the land that we have. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. I see nothing further from Mr. McNeely. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. There's a number of reductions on this page that I'm wondering about. Program management and administration is down, I don't know, maybe $150,000. Land Use Administration is down over $100,000. Resource Management is down almost or over $300,000 from last year.

What's the rationale for these reductions, and how will that impact our ability to manage lands, stuff that we've inherited under devolution? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think the total reduction was $636,000 if I am not mistaken. It was for utilities, fuel costs for inspections program, restricted base funding for inspection response to spills. We withdrew a couple of positions. Then these Commissioner’s senior lands officers function in headquarters, we have reduced it from five to three positions. I think that is the total of the $636,000. Then we have one sunset of $80,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister refreshing my mind on some of those. What impact will it have on our ability to manage and inspect lands? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think we still will have the capacity to carry out our inspections as we have done in the past. If you recall from MACA lands days, before it was converted over, one of the questions we kept getting was the amount of inspectors we had. I think since Lands has been formed, we have -- I am not sure of the exact number. I can get them, as far as our inspector division goes. We have a fairly robust inspection division that is adequately staffed. I will confirm that information, and I will share it with committee.