Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister if the Minister is expecting initial sort of measurable results with the budget as it is with no increases, and in the $500,000 increase in mental health, although for me, it's more of an alcohol and drug issue rather than a mental health, but I also know that they're very closely linked.

I would like to know if the Minister has any measurable results that the department will be looking at, and at this budget year? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of things that we are doing to help individuals who are suffering from addictions here in the Northwest Territories. We have put in $1.2 million into addictions programming, which is a direct result of the Minister's forum in the last government.

As we discussed yesterday in Committee of the Whole, we are actually in the process of developing a comprehensive evaluation framework working with our partners so that we can have some long-term assessment on these programs to see how effective they are over time. I did commit to providing the Members with the immediate detail, how many people have attended, the general feedback they have provided us, those types of things. That will help us determine the effectiveness of these programs moving forward.

We also have contracts with four treatment facilities in the south, and we have actually included and put in an expedited referral process. What we have seen in the last year and a half is actually a rise in the number of individuals who were choosing to utilize those facilities. For years in the Northwest Territories, we had a fairly static number. There was 12 people in treatment at any given time. We're starting to see that rise as a result of the expedited referral process. I certainly can provide those details to the Member, and we do have some evaluation frameworks in place to try to monitor those in the long term. So there are a number of things we are doing to track the results of the good work that was done in the previous Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I agree, I think we're going to see very positive results in the treatment facilities in the south. I'd like to ask the Minister if the Department of Health and Social Services has done any work with the Departments of Justice and Education to start with in the area of how the alcohol is impacting the budgets of those particular departments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're always trying to break down the barriers between the departments. We have formed individual ministry or committees and one of them is community wellness and safety where we meet and we discuss how we can work together better and address the issues. We need to do more, obviously. I mean we're on the right path as far as providing services, but we need to do our additional work around the mental health and addictions strategic framework. And we need to do that in cooperation, and we are doing that in cooperation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as everyone knows the old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I'd like to ask the Minister if there is any sort of concentrated effort by the department or any of the departments that he would do some work with in that area? If there's some sort of an effort to move to spending more money on prevention rather than cure? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member's right. There's certainly a lot of value in focusing on prevention, but we can't focus on the prevention at the expense of providing somebody acute care services that we have to provide here in the Northwest Territories. Having said that, we are partnering with the federal government who is flowing significant community wellness dollars through the GNWT to the individual communities around the Northwest Territories who have all developed their own individual community wellness plans. Many of them are focusing on the prevention aspects, working with youth, working with families at risk and individuals at risk through different on-the-land programs, community services, and our Aboriginal Health and Community Wellness Division is really focusing on supporting these communities and people across the Northwest Territories in the area of prevention.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Masi. Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have intergovernmental MOU with the Tlicho Government and as part of the formal arrangement we meet on a semi-annual basis with the Tlicho leadership and they raise issues of importance to them and we raise issues of importance to us. I believe in those discussions that the Tlicho wanted more presence of the Government of the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation in their communities and they wanted to work much more closely together in the riding and looking after the housing needs of the Tlicho and they suggested that we could possibly look at having some sort of a joint partnership in doing so. We're very open to exploring all possibilities of improving the effectiveness of the efficiencies of this transparent Government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi to the Minister for that answer. I'll turn to the Executive Department's media release of the same date on a meeting with the Northwest Territories Metis Nation which contains reference to discussions on the Taltson Dam on Cabinet taxation and on, "negotiation issues such as generalized interest and early land transfer.” Again, developments on topics that are news to me. Could the Minister please give us a few highlights on those discussions? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

For the benefit of the Member, the discussions with regards to Taltson Dam have been going on for at least three or four Assemblies and certainly there has been discussions about expanding the Taltson Dam in partnership with Aboriginal Governments and we went to bring the power to the diamond mines and the diamond mines would buy the power and it went as far as going for environmental assessment and part of the recommendations was to work more closely with the Akaitcho Government with regards to crossing some portions of land that was being negotiated and that has been stalled from there on and there's certainly significant interest by the NWT Metis Nation to see additional work undertaken in that area.

Thank you to the Minister for the response. Then there's the April 20thExecutive Department media release on meetings with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. I was particularly intrigued by the reference in that release to, "offshore revenue negotiations." Could the Minister give us a brief overview of what this refers to?

Thank you. As the Member may know, the offshore in the Beaufort has very significant resource potential in the area of oil and gas and this is an area that has been identified for negotiation. It was part of the oil and gas negotiations of devolution. There as a trigger in the devolution agreement that six months after devolution came into place that the trigger would be pulled so that negotiations could start with the Government of Canada for management of the offshore in the Beaufort and also collection of royalties and the whole regulatory process. We have indicated in conjunction with the Inuvialuit, the Inuvialuit have had land claims for over 30 years and joint management of the Beaufort has been a very important priority for the Inuvialuit and they want to get on with it. We want to get on with it. We think at this juncture where there is no oil and gas activity going on in the Beaufort and very little likelihood of it returning in the near future that this is a good time to do those negotiations and get it done.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. So despite the talk-down answers, we concede that these are all quite significant matters in which all Caucus Members would genuinely have an interest. The guiding principles in consensus government in the NWT by which we are all bound says under Principle Five: "Except under extraordinary circumstances, Members of the Legislative Assembly should be made aware and have opportunity to discuss significant announcements, changes, consultations or initiatives before they are released to the public or introduced in the Legislative Assembly.” Can the Minister tell us why the input of all Caucus Members was not sought on these significant matters and whether he will commit to seeking the direction of Caucus prior to future consultations with our Aboriginal Government partners? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

These are matters that are raised by Aboriginal Governments in their own right and when they raise it at the meetings we can't take the time to say, well, we're going to go back and check with all 19 Members before we can have this discussion, but we do have bodies. Like I said, every one of the instances the Member referred to is part of longstanding discussions and negotiations.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I've made several statements in this House about the need for our government to put in place a sound and robust system for financial securities from non-renewable resource development and its part of our mandate as the 18thAssembly. Earlier today I spoke of the financial security shortfall for the Cantung Mine and its poor environmental track record. Can the Minister of Lands tell me whether GNWT still holds surface leases covering the Cantung property? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the administration of control of the site is not being transferred back to Canada; therefore, the GNWT still administers surface leases on the Mactung site. Thank you.

As I understand it, GNWT was able to turn back most of the responsibility for the Cantung Mine to the Federal Government of the Devolution Agreement. Why do we still have surface leases covering the property? Can the Minister tell this House what his department is doing about turning those leases over to the federal government and what residual financial liability GNWT still has for the Cantung Mine?

Mr. Speaker, the transferred administration control will take place if Canada requests a transfer. As far as the liability goes through the devolution agreement, Canada took responsibility for the remediation of the Cantung Mine.