No, I cannot give that guarantee; however, it is important to remember that all leases contain clauses that explicitly note that the lessee does not have rights to the subsurface. That would apply to all leases.

Thank you to the Minister for providing that clarification. Mr. Speaker, part of the Yellowknife Peripheral Area Land Use Management Plan involves developing GIS maps of the area. Can the Minister commit that he will support the inclusion of the NWT Mineral 10-year Data Sets which are publically available online from the GNWT in the plan?

I can advise that we are looking at all sorts of areas and information, including the submissions made by various parties including industry. We would be prepared to look at the NWT Mineral 10-year Data Sets referred to by the Member opposite. As to whether they will be including in the plan, that is to be determined.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, maybe the Minister can answer this last question. It correlates with my line of questioning, but it is relevant to power. The development of a potential or future mine requires significant power, of course, and over the long term development of enough hydro power to support multiple mines could also lower the power rates for both industry as well as residents. Will the Minister commit to working with his colleagues to support the development of safe, reliable, sustainable energy on a scale that will make industrial development economically feasible in the area? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government and the Power Corporation are always interested in development of safe, reliable, sustainable green energy. As to whether for a specific project we would have the resources to have a project on the scale that might be necessary, it would have to be determined by the parties, and I understand that the Power Corporation has been in touch with several industrial groups to discuss that very issue.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As my colleague before mentioned on the incident there related to the Enbridge line 21 referred to, one element of land management is responding to infrastructure. In this case, line 21, several months ago our government first learned of this incident. My question to the Minister of Lands is: what monitoring systems are in place currently after learning from the incident? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, the difficulties with the line included were rather in an area that is the jurisdiction of the National Energy Board, so that would be the primary party that is responsible for issues arising from difficulties with the pipeline. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is common knowledge there from the mirrored legislation and Devolution transfers and terms of the agreement that it is within the NEB jurisdiction on line 21; however, we shall move on because outside the parameters of the right-of-way it is our land, so I think we should take precautionary measures and at least have some method of communication. Therefore, my next question is: are there land inspectors out in that area, in the Fort Simpson area, where the situation is crossing the Mackenzie?

Yes, of course some of the areas adjacent to the pipeline and the right-of-way would be the responsibility of OROGO, and I understand that they do have a procedure under which if there are difficulties those incidents are reported to them. As to the second part of the question, as to whether there are inspectors out there right now, I would have to get back to the Member opposite.

We could answer it now or we can answer it later on as the budget deliberations go. There are resources that need to be approved for the hiring of inspectors. However, a potential catastrophe of this nature would only need the attention that it deserves and the resources to support that. I would encourage the Minister to be forthcoming on the question. Do we have people on the ground looking after our better interest and the health of the environment and the health of the people, knowing the fact that this particular infrastructure is across from the Mackenzie River, and there are a lot of affected communities downstream that could be affected? My question is, I would encourage the Minister to keep us abreast of the learnings of the situation and to please share that with us.

I will keep the Member's office appraised of any developments that are under our jurisdiction. I understand also that the oil company or the transmission company, Enbridge, does as a courtesy advise us of difficulties or issues that they are facing. There has not been a cutback in the number of inspectors that Lands has. I realize of course that this is a serious issue, and I can advise that the department will be monitoring it carefully.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my statement today I talked about the Finance Minister's budget commitment to explore a tax on sugary drinks. The government's revenue option paper from last year rejected a sugar tax as uneconomic in terms of administration because the expense of implementing it would be greater than the income earned. I was surprised to hear about it in the budget. What has changed the Minister's views in the last year? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Finance.

That is good news, that health is the focus of bringing the tax into consideration. Is that the primary purpose that the Minister sees the Northwest Territories sugar tax serving? That is, will it be a revenue-neutral tax where the savings are reinvested in health measures?

I am sure the Minister of Health and Social Services would like that. One of the reasons that we have decided that we want to do it, we actually already have a letter of support from the Dieticians of Canada with their 6,000 members across the country. I think they have 15 in Northwest Territories. They have provided us with some excellent starting points for our discussions on a sugar tax. We don't know yet about the revenue. These are details we have to work out. As we go into the process, I would be more than pleased to sit down with committee and get their input. Then we will work to put together a good product for the people of the Northwest Territories.

Does the Minister have any preliminary ideas about how he will engage members of the public during the exploration of imposing this tax?

As I said before, we are early in the process, but an issue such as this, this is something that we would need to get a lot of input from committee and the public. As we go through the LPs and introduce an introduction of bills, the opportunity is going to be there for committee to take the bill on the road. We will ensure that we have a lot of good feedback and a good-quality product that we are able to present before the Legislative Assembly.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my new favourite Minister when we can expect him to report back to us about the next steps, such as the introduction of the LP. Thank you.