Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the land and water board has their process, and they review items brought before them, and then they are brought over to ENR for a decision by the Minister. So, whatever process they use, if they believe it's a fair process then they operate under that process as we operate under ours. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that response; I'm not sure it really deals with the issue. When would the Minister refer matters of procedural fairness to the courts or take it upon himself to make a determination?

Mr. Speaker, we take our responsibility for the water licences direction very seriously, and, if there's an issue that's brought before us, we like to ensure that all parties have a say in the issues that are brought before us. If we feel that some procedural fairness was not met, then we may refer that back to the water board.

Again, thanks to the Minister for his response. Does the Minister recognize that questions of law about a water licence issued by a board, including procedural fairness, are best dealt with through the appeal processes set out in the Waters Act; that is, an appeal to the court rather than trying to have the Minister sort out these matters?

Mr. Speaker, I'm not a lawyer, but I do understand a bit how this works and I'm starting to understand it a bit more. My understanding is that if any of the parties feel that procedural fairness was not met, they could possibly go through the court system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for his response. That's exactly what I'm getting at, rather than put himself in the position of trying to deal with procedural fairness, get the courts to do it. That's where the applicants should go. Earlier today, I spoke of how land and water boards are required to deal with compensation claims; compliance with water standards, although we don't have any after 45 years; and financial responsibility of applicants. Why does the Minister not use these criteria when reviewing water licences for his signature, especially given our terrible track record of contaminated sites and public liabilities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, that track record may have been in the past, way in the past, and we're starting to move ahead. Through devolution, we think we've got a lot of the necessary tools to put ourselves in a position to move ahead and be responsible for the environmental protection and going through all the processes. So there may have been mistakes made in the past, I can't speak to those, but we can definitely learn from them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier, I had mentioned my questions would be related to the anti-poverty initiative here and the campaign. This program, I'm very intrigued with it here on my attendance seven months ago in March, there. It's a consolidation of various initiatives to address anti-poverty. With the consolidation of these various programs underneath three different departments into one room, that, to me, is a very proactive role. My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is if he can confirm there is support in the future to have and hold a conference similar to that which is going on in Inuvik and here this past March in the Sahtu region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the intention at this point is to have an annual conference on the anti-poverty work that's being done across the Northwest Territories. This is actually a great opportunity for people from across communities who are undertaking community and region-based activities to come together and learn from each other and share best practices. What's working in one community can be done in another community. So it's a wonderful opportunity to come and keep the conversation alive and keep it current and mould and change as needed, based on new information.

This year, we are having our anti-poverty conference. It's going to be in Inuvik. We are planning to have ones for the remainder of this fiscal year. Today, I'll make a commitment to the Member that in 2017, when we have the anti-poverty conference -- it'll probably be at this time of year, similar to the one that's happening this year -- we'll have it in Norman Wells, and in 2018, what the heck, let's have it in Hay River, and in 2019 how about Fort Simpson. That's what we'll do, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Wonderful words for our second last day in action in front of the media here, something to take home for Christmas. I look forward to the upcoming schedule of the proposition. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Marsi Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Researchers with Social Ventures Australia, a firm that has assessed a federally funded Aboriginal Stewardship Program in Australia for the Prime Minister and Cabinet just released a case study of Indigenous Guardian Programs run by Lutselk'e and Dehcho First Nations. I'd like to ask the Minister if he's aware of the findings in that report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of these programs and we're actually proud of the fact that in the Northwest Territories we do have a couple of Indigenous Guardianship Programs. The Ni'Hat'ni Dene or Watchers of Land and the Deh Cho KOD which means taking care of Dehcho, and we've seen how these programs actually benefit the community, they generate some good-paying jobs, they prepare young people to be our next generation leaders, but the guardianship program, my understanding, do even more because they are guardians of the land monitoring wildlife, tracking changes to watershed and other aspects of the environment. They can help the GNWT meet our mandate for conserving biodiversity and responding to climate change and enhance our collective capacity for environmental monitoring and management. So it's wise of us to work with these groups and continue to seek their advice because who knows the land better than the people that use it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, research confirms that Indigenous guardians helps strengthen the community self-determination. How does the Minister see that benefitting the rest of NWT if a program was to be expanded?

Mr. Speaker, I see a great benefit to the work of the NWT because it aligns with many of our current GNWT strategies and initiatives, examples like the Water Strategy Conservation Areas Networking Planning, Anti-Poverty Strategy and Culture and Heritage Strategy amongst others. We think that the guardian programs can play a critical role in the stewardship and strengthening the government-to-government relationships.

Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I indicated the return on investment for this program. The report indicates a return in investment. I use the number 2.5 times return and the potential return would be 3.7, so that's quite substantial. Considering these enormous returns, how does the Minister feel about the government supporting this program moving forward?

Mr. Speaker, I always have an opinion. We will continue to work with these groups to see if there's resources that might be made available to them. ENR staff actually attended the National Indigenous Guardianship Program in Ottawa in early October and the purpose of the gathering was to highlight the knowledge of the Indigenous Guardian Approach to the protection and management of lands and waters and as with most of our trips to Ottawa, there was some discussion on funding. I'm not sure the nature of those discussions or the outcome of those discussions yet, but as we continue to move on with this initiative I will be happy to share the findings with the Member.