I would like to be hopeful, too, and I really appreciate the Minister's reply. Certainly, we do want to meet this mandate obligation. It is of the utmost highest priority.

Mr. Speaker, we just recently had a presentation from LKDFN with regard to Thaidene Nene. In there, they estimated that there could be up to 18 jobs for the Lutselk'e Dene First Nation, most of which, it seems like most of which, would be tied to the conservation economy. I'm just wondering: can the Minister let us know, aside from those 18, are there specific jobs that might be tied directly to the GNWT? If so, what are those and how many would there be? How many are we anticipating?

Mr. Speaker, this is a possibility. Once TDN is established, a management plan will be developed, which will better inform the staff complement for the protected areas. I wouldn't be able to tell the Member right now how many jobs that we are hoping to create out of this or planning to create out of this. Once the management plan is developed, then we will have a better understanding of the number of jobs and the types of jobs that are going to be available.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister talked earlier that we are hopeful in terms of meeting all of our obligations to establish this park in the life of this Assembly. Can the Minister maybe provide a little bit more detail and maybe speak a little bit more to specific timelines and what, maybe, the next steps might be?

Mr. Speaker, the negotiations are ongoing. The negotiations will conclude with the signing of the land transfer agreement with Parks Canada as well as other agreements with IGOs as required. The GNWT, now this is a different word, is "confident," instead of "hopeful" is confident, that these agreements will be concluded within the life of the 18^th Legislative Assembly.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his reply. We have moved from "hope" to "confidence," and that is a good thing, but there is a missing piece, Mr. Speaker. That leads me to ask the Minister about: can he update us and this Assembly on the current status of the Territorial Protected Areas Act? Are we as confident in having that piece of legislation passed so that we can enable the establishment of this park? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, establishment of a new territorial park via legislation during the life of the Assembly, needless to say, is a priority with the Government of the Northwest Territories as well as the mandate item. A collaborative effort process with the Indigenous government organization, other level of governments, and stakeholders has been undertaken to gather input needed to develop this important piece of legislation. The work continues. Public engagement is also underway. Formal consultation with Indigenous governments and organizations is also ongoing. It will be conducted prior to introducing the bill for first reading. We are looking at introducing the bill for first reading during the winter 2019 session, which would be the February-March session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Speaker, right now, what is the department doing to make sure that all Tsiigehtchic clients of income security programs can have face-to-face access to staff when they need to? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we have a client service officer who travels into Tsiigehtchic on a monthly basis so that they can meet with income support clients. We also have government service officers who can help people with filling out forms or applications, et cetera, if the client service officers aren't in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the number of income assistance cases and the number of income assistance beneficiaries in Tsiigehtchic has increased over time. We are also hearing from community leadership that a local dedicated staff person is necessary for practical purposes. What other information does the department need to build a business case to re-introduce this position into the community?

Customer service is a priority within all government departments, but we also have to be reasonable. We have more need or more desires than actually money. Within the community of Tsiigehtchic, currently we have 10 people who are on income support and we have five people that are accessing our home heating services. The five people on home heating only have to apply once a year. The 10 people on income support have to do monthly assessments, but I really have a hard time justifying that we would need a full-time worker for 10 people on income support in a community. If I had the money, Mr. Speaker, I would have one. Again, it is hard to justify a full-time worker on 10 income support people.

Mr. Speaker, one thing that I didn't mention in my statement is travel time is taken out of the actual hours that a person is in the community. You're looking at anywhere from four to five hours per day once a month that that person is in the community. Now that I have brought these issues to the Minister's attention, what actions will the Minister take to improve local, face-to-face income security program services in Tsiigehtchic?

Since the Member brought it up, there must be an issue with it. I'm more than willing to sit down with the Member and discuss what their community is actually seeing as barriers. My understanding is that we do have workers going in once a month at minimum. I will make sure that they are providing that service, and I would be more than willing to meet with the MLA to figure out what the issues are and see how we can accommodate.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister actually come on a tour in the first week of December, with Minister Schumann and I, along with whoever else is available? Will the Minister commit to that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There was a commitment that Ministers get to as many ridings as possible. I know I have been to that riding probably a couple of times already. I am not sure if it is on my agenda for December. I do know that I am booking up until February, but if I am available, then I would be more than honoured to visit the riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our engagement with Indigenous governments has started. Really, what they do on their side is entirely up to them. We have started engaging with them. It would seem to me that they may wish to consult with their members, but that is their choice, of course. Thank you.

Yes, he has worked with Indigenous governments, and he is organizing that. However, this is a regional government, and these cabin owners are community-based. I know that Acho Dene is getting consulting as well, but again, what about the other three communities out there: Wrigley, Nahanni Butte, and Sambaa K'e? Is it DFN's responsibility now to get that information out there?

This is a government decision, not DFN's thing. Will the Minister advise us, will they look at going to the smaller communities and getting this information out there?

As I mentioned, our initial engagement, if I can put it that way, will be with the Indigenous government organizations. Whether further engagements will be required in the smaller communities is an issue which I will discuss with the department.

All I can say is that we are engaging with a large number of Aboriginal governments throughout the Northwest Territories and possibly beyond, if it is deemed necessary.

Our initial engagement, and, in fact, this engagement has just started this week, is with IGOs, and I assume that they would then be in touch with their members, but again, that is up to them.