Thank you for one of the shortest ever answers from the Minister. My second question is: what progress has the Minister made on developing a funding formula for family violence shelters, and when is this work scheduled to be complete?

The Department of Health staff met with different individuals from the family shelters around the Northwest Territories on September 16th to start developing a work plan on how to work together to develop a funding formula. I do not know the exact timelines of that. They are working amongst themselves, something that will work on both sides. I will get some additional information to share with the Member.

Thanks to the Minister for that answer. As the Minister is aware, there are no family violence shelters in the Deh Cho and Sahtu regions. What plans does the Minister have to address this gap in service for women who are fleeing violence in those areas?

We do invest about $3.8 million annually towards family violence prevention and inter-prevention services in the Northwest Territories; $2.9 million of that goes to the different territorial family violence shelters. Where there aren't family violence shelters in communities or regions, we do have some dollars allocated that we can use to bring those families or those individuals to the regional centres where the family violence shelters do exist. On top of that, we are also contributing about $477,000 to a number of different campaigns to bring awareness and combat family violence in the Northwest Territories. Things like What Will It Take? We have non-shelter regional protocols and response teams. We have programming for children who witnessed violence. We do have the shelter network that's getting some additional funding as well as Family Violence Awareness Week. There are a number of things we are doing trying to support those individuals who are suffering from domestic violence.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the run-down on the family violence, but it doesn't tell me when there will be shelters in the Deh Cho and the Sahtu. The other five shelters are often full and having these additional resources closer to home is important to the residents of that region, especially to women in that region. Will the Minister be looking at new investments such as in these shelters in the next budget? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, during the capital budgeting process, the Minister of Finance did indicate that we would be working together to see if there are any opportunities to provide some funding in this area, especially if the federal government was going to come to the table in support of family violence shelters. We are going to work together to see what opportunities exist and, as we have more information, we are happy to share that with Members.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Lands, who has some responsibility for mining financial security. There are some positions shown on the organizational charts for the Securities and Project Assessment Division of the Department of Lands. Can the Minister give us a brief overview of the work under way within this division to develop a new closure and reclamation regime for mining in the Northwest Territories, including financial securities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Securities and Project Assessment Division is providing input to the Department of Lands as we go forward with our updates to the Territorial Lands Act and the Commissioner's Land Act. The department will begin reviewing regulations relating to securities and other matters within the next few months. Apart from that, I can advise that the government and resource management boards who share responsibility for many aspects in this area, particularly financial securities, are working together to develop a guideline for closure and reclamation cost estimates for mines. I understand that document is expected to be released as a joint GNWT Lands and Water Board document in early 2018. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that response. I think it doesn't really quite jibe with what he said on October 5th when he said, "We know the present system is working quite well." Earlier in my statement, I described the financial security mess involving a promissory note created against the closure and reclamation costs of the Mactung and Cantung properties. Can the Minister update us on the costs at work to property reclaim of Mactung and Cantung?

Canada accepted responsibility for the Cantung site in November of 2015. Care and maintenance at the site continues to be monitored by the court-appointed receiver, for the North American Tungsten. The Government of Canada is bearing the costs of that work. The GNWT no longer exercises delegated authorities at the site under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. This means that it is Canada, not the GNWT, who is responsible for the decisions and water licences and inspections of any water licences or land use permits.

The final step to be completed in this exercise is the relinquishment of the site to Canada, and most parties are working closely to complete the legal steps necessary to transfer the land back to Canada, as it is their responsibility. With respect to the Mactung ITI is the department lead on that project and they are working closely to ENR to remove and dispose of debris from the site.

I appreciate the answer from the Minister. It is clear he did his homework and I gave him a heads up, so I appreciate the detailed response. As part of our mandate, we agreed to "develop an integrated comprehensive approach to the management of contaminated sites including prioritizing, sharing of responsibility in collaboration with other governments, monitoring, and a sound financial security system to prevent public liabilities."

This item was not changed during the recent revisions. What lessons have we learned from the Mactung and Cantung messes and how will this government apply them to achieve the mandate commitment and prevent further public liabilities?

I do appreciate the heads up the Member opposite gave me on this fairly complex issue. He referenced my statement of October 5th. Obviously, we can still improve and do need to improve. I do acknowledge that.

We have learned lessons through the exercise of our post-devolution responsibilities. There have been problems with the type of security that we have accepted in the past. I believe there was an unsecured promissory note that is not worth the paper it's written on, so we have learned that we should take more real security. Clearly, you must have real security. An unsecured promissory note is worth very little. We are taking a whole-government approach, if I can put it that way, to resolve this matter and provide the type of security we do need for these projects.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Again, thanks to the Minister. I'm glad to hear him say that promissory notes are not good. What he should be looking at is something called an irrevocable letter of credit from a charter bank. That's what you want. I'm helping him out with his homework here, but public consultations are under way on a new Mineral Resources Act. The words "financial security" are nowhere to be found in the discussion paper and the word "abandonment" appears once in the table.

The discussion on rehabilitation closure takes up three paragraphs and four questions with no analysis or options presented. Was the Lands Department involved in putting the Mineral Resources Act discussion paper together? If so, how did it attempt to ensure that the mandate commitment on prevention of future public liabilities is achieved through the Mineral Resources Act? Masi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Clearly an irrevocable letter of credit is far better than a promissory note. The promissory note was actually inherited though from the federal government. That was not something of our doing.

ITI, of course, is leading the development on the proposed Mineral Resources Act. We are in the middle of a public engagement until December of 2017. We will be working with ITI on any topics that might arise as a result of this public engagement. As well, Lands will work with ITI on the process as the current mining regulations are held within the Northwest Territories Lands Act. We are working with other departments in this important area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about mental illness and suicides in my region. My questions are to follow up to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Has there been any outreach to education institutions specializing in Health and Social Services programs for recommendations or potential training for healthcare professionals and residents of the GNWT aside from what we do presently? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, we do have a relationship with Aurora College and they do provide important training, things like resident care aid training and nursing, but I think the Member is asking about some of the other things that we are exploring. I did have an opportunity to meet with the Dean of Effective Medicine at the University of Alberta to talk about potential opportunities for us to work together in bringing physicians up for residency placements, but also the possibility of having some dental hygienists come up for some practicum placements. We are looking to having those types of relationships with institutions to see what opportunities exist and to see how we can benefit our residents here in the Northwest Territories.

I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess my concern is regarding the mental health and mental wellness of our individuals, and I have to applaud the department and the staff who are there helping us. However, is the department looking at mental health resources like telepsychology and looking into for remote, small communities? Right now we do not have staff in there, so are we able to be looking at some of these options?

Mr. Speaker, the use of telepsychiatry is already in place in the Northwest Territories. The telehealth support unit may be able to provide those types of services directly to individuals or indirectly to communities based on supports and resources that are required to support individual people. However, I do want to caution that often that would be for follow-up appointments and those types of things. Initial appointments, I believe, and I think many people believe that some of that needs to be done person-to-person, psychiatrist or counsellor with an individual, so that they can start to develop a rapport and a relationship, so there still is a requirement to try to facilitate some face-to-face, but, as follow-up appointments, we do have the ability to use our telehealth and other tools that are available.