Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have made a commitment and I will stand by my commitment that I am not willing to let Aurora College stay status quo. There are issues that need to be addressed within our post-secondary education, and my commitment is to making sure that we have the best quality post-secondary and secondary and elementary education for our students as possible.

So the social work program as it is, could the Minister make the improvements or some of the improvements that are indicated in that review, which is now public information? Could the Minister implement some of those recommendations now, improve the program and get it working the way it should to fill the much-needed gap in social workers, that are indicated in the government's own Skills 4 Success strategy?

No, the Minister cannot make those changes immediately. There are significant changes to be made. One is deciding where we want the transfer of credits to go or if it wants to be stand-alone. That is one issue. The other issue is it talks about having third- and fourth-year courses in the first year of a student attending university. That is not okay. That sets up our students to fail. That needs to be changed, and it talks about how to change that, combining it with other general arts throughout the other programs, but that has to be negotiated. This is not something that you just automatically do. So all of the changes need time. The internal review done on the social work program says develop a plan. I picked that up, and I am committed to making sure that we do a planned process that ensures that we have quality programming for our students. As said over and over, I am all about quality programming.

I appreciate that there are areas that can improve and, if the Minister is certain that these opportunities cannot be made, then I will ask this. Everything hinges on the ADM, this new ADM position that is out for hire. When is the Minister going to have that position in place so we can start making progress on Aurora College?

The competition is now open. It's going across Canada. It closes, I believe, at the end of this month. At that point, we will be conducting the interview process, and we are presuming that person will be hired by the end of this calendar year.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the department cannot succeed in hiring this position, what is the Minister's backup plan? Are we still going to move ahead with changes, or does everything stall until we can fill that position? Thank you.

I would be shocked if we did not fill the position. We have had applicants from across Canada apply, and I have even gotten three that came across my desk as a Minister, so I am not even sure why that would not happen, that it would not be done.

As the Member had spoken before, I do not know if it was a hockey puck or a football, but this is not a game, Mr. Speaker. This is about building a strong foundation. We need to do things in proper time. We need strong leadership to guide this forward. It is not appropriate that a Minister who does not have the expertise in bringing forward post-secondary education would be designing what that post-secondary would look like. My degree is in social work. It is not on running post-secondary education. I need the expertise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a follow-up on my Member's statement today here. My questions will be for the Minister of Lands. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why residents are feeling that their treaty rights are being taken away by having their cabins be considered unauthorized occupancy on their own traditional land? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently in the Northwest Territories there are over 700 structures on land administered by the Government of the Northwest Territories that do not have land tenure. Some of those untenured structures may be associated with an asserted or established Aboriginal or treaty right. Of course, this government respects treaties, and this fall the department is engaging with Indigenous governments and organizations to initiate discussions on respectful and effective ways to identify which of the 700-plus properties, cabins, are rights-based and which are not.

I thank the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, though, we are talking regional, but we are talking about individual cabin owners, so can the Minister advise how cabin owners are being informed about the process to identify what type of occupancy their cabins are on?

As an initial step, we are reaching out to Indigenous governments across the Northwest Territories, and I see there are meetings scheduled to take place in the Nahendeh riding with IGOs on October 22 and 25, 2018. Individual cabin owners should speak to their IGOs or with the regional office if they have questions with respect to their camp or cabin.

I thank the Minister for that answer. Again, government is sloughing on the responsibility. I have asked him: how can we get the government, the Department of Lands, to get that information to the cabin owners? I am not asking about Indigenous governments. I am not asking about process. I am asking him how we are going to get that information to the residents, the ones who are the traditional peoples. The hunters and trappers who are out there are getting notices right now, saying that, you know, you have got to come in. So how are we getting that information to them, just putting a notice up there, posting? That does not seem right.

I would encourage camp and cabin owners to see the regional Lands offices for information relating to their specific cabins. As I say, there are a great number of unauthorized occupancies in the Northwest Territories, and we want to decide which of those are rights-based. We are taking the first steps by engaging with Indigenous governments with respect to this matter. We would encourage individuals to speak to the regional offices regarding their specific cabins and camps.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Yes, as I said previously, we wish to determine which cabins are unauthorized and which are rights-based. Our initial steps are with Indigenous governments. I'd be pleased to provide some additional information to the Members opposite with respect to the process should they wish. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further into my statement on landfill disposal, Mr. Speaker, this is a joint effort. In preparation on an affordable shipping schedule, Mr. Speaker, this winter, Husky Energy will be delivering a winter closure project in the Tulita area. My first question to the Minister of ENR: in cooperation with MACA, Infrastructure Department, and Husky Energy, can the Minister commit to working with our regional office to coordinate backhaul arrangements from the landfill to licensed disposable sites in the south? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in September and October of this year, ENR worked with two community governments and their contractor to identify and consolidate all their hazardous waste in preparation for transportation on the Mackenzie Valley winter road to an approved disposable facility. The following hazardous materials were a part of this package. There were a number of pallets of used oil, glycol, and this was from a couple communities, vehicle batteries, fuel, contaminated water. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm glad to hear that from the Minister. That leads me to my next question: will the Minister direct his regional office to work with the Industry company, in this case it's Husky Energy, on identifying backhauls that could be loaded up with some of the landfill materials from the five communities in the Sahtu region for this coming winter season?