Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I wanted to ask is the Minister noted an interesting initiative between Health and Social Services and the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation to try to not encourage, but to meet the interests of elders who want to live in their homes for as long as possible. Is there any immediate initiatives that could encourage or else at least reassure elders who want to live in their homes that at some point, there could be some tailored or customized programs to meet their needs, whether it's building access ramps for the wheelchairs, or whether it's for enhancements in terms of doorways, perhaps, upgrades, the Minister will need some cooperation with the Housing Corporation?

In short, yes, the Housing Corporation does have a number of programs around accessibility that seniors can use to do upgrades to their places to ensure that they can stay there safely for as long as possible. We've had a really great relationship with the Housing Corporation when it's come to the independent living units. They've really worked with us to make sure there's program space, and they did participate in the development of the Continuing Care Action Plan. It's not a Department of Health and Social Services action plan. It's a whole-of-government action plan. We really understand and want to, as much as possible, keep our seniors in their homes as long as possible, and the Housing Corporation has stood up, and we continue to work together to find ways to help our seniors stay where they want to stay. They want to stay in their homes, Mr. Speaker. They benefit from staying in their homes. We need them in their homes and in their communities for as long as possible. The last place we want to see them is long-term care, but we know that some will need to go to long-term care, and when they do, we want to make sure they have great facilities, providing great services for that level of care, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently I've been advised by a few people in the Nahendeh riding that they have purchased lots that were equity leases, but once they purchased them, they became regular lease lots. This doesn't seem fair, especially since the department is now working forward on equity lease lots in the Northwest Territories. My questions are for the Minister of Lands: can the Minister explain why the department doesn't honour the original equity lease agreements until this issue is being resolved? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The equity leases are contracts that the department is managing and administering in accordance with the lease terms and conditions. If an existing equity lease expires, the department places the lessee in what is known as an overholding tenancy, and so, if the equity portion is paid, the annual lease would be $1 per year. The department is bound by the terms of the lease, and we are allowing the lessee to go into an overholding position. Thank you.

I was asking the questions: when the person has an equity lease and sells it to somebody else, what happens there? Why aren't we just turning it over to an equity lease? My next question here is: with leases that are being switched to Commissioner's or NWT lands, what happens to the equity that the previous landowners had on these leases?

Essentially an equity lease can be assigned to a new lessee, but we are not currently issuing any new equity leases. If a person has an equity lease, and it has a term to it, that equity lease is assigned. The new lessee would take over that lease and be bound by the terms and conditions. As I say, we are not granting new equity leases.

We are not talking about a new equity lease; we are talking about an existing one. That is a concern. When somebody purchases a lot, there is equity into this lot. Can the Minister advise us what happens to the equity leases, and why does the equity that they have into it not return back to the original owner?

If the lease, again, is assigned to a new lessee, then that lessee takes over the terms of that equity lease. There may be circumstances, and this would depend on the terms of the lease, where a portion of the equity could be returned. I looked today at a lease where there was a partial refunded equity. There may be, in some cases, partial refunds of equity, but generally speaking, what happens is that, if the equity lease is assigned to a lessee, the new lessee takes over the terms of the equity lease.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for the answers up to this point. My problem is that, when we have an equity lease and the person purchases it, the equity lease now gets turned into a regular lease again. Now the person doesn't own it; he is given a lease. Will the Minister look at those files that had equity leases, then they were turned back to leases, and will they turn them back to equity leases until all equity lease files are dealt with so that the individual can purchase it, whether it is for a home or a business? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I mentioned, we are not issuing new equity leases. However, if a lease is assigned, then the new lessee takes over the terms and conditions of that equity lease. We are not, however, going to be issuing new equity leases.

As I say, there may be circumstances, and it was asked earlier by the Member opposite, about refunds. Again, looking at the portion of the lease that I have in front of me, I do see that, in some circumstances, there is a partial refund of equity. I don't know if there are cases where there is a full refund. In any case, just to repeat, we are not issuing new equity leases. However, equity leases that are currently in force can be assigned to new lessees, so they will take over the terms and conditions of that lease, but we are not issuing new equity leases. Thank you.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This sailing season has already been posted online. Everyone is welcome to have a look at it. These are subject to change, of course, due to climatic change and other variables that we would be out of control of.

At this present moment we are planning to go to Norman Wells three times this year; June, July, and August. We are looking at going to Tulita twice this year, in July and August, as well. To inform Members of this House and the people of the general public, the terminal in Hay River is now open, accepting cargo for all communities across the Northwest Territories, and I encourage those who want to send cargo to get hold of our terminal or else book through our customer service desk. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks to the Minister for that information there. My next question is: what is MTS doing differently for this 2019 season to ensure a successful resupply? For example, federal resources for upgrades to the operational side of the division, and those types of things?

As all of the Members know, we have had a challenging year there last year with the issue that happened in the Beau-Del. We are focusing our efforts on high-quality and timely resupply services. We are going to have to focus on a number of efforts across the system, what we are going to have to do to ensure that we will be able to improve resupply. One of those particular measures is trying to get out earlier this year with our ships; that is why the sailing season has been altered a little bit.

Now, again, as I said, some of this is subject to stuff that is out of our control. The supplier of petroleum products has to run their schedule and get their stuff, and hopefully they are working closely with our department, which I know they are.

Something that I didn't even think about until today that could possibly hamper delays further in the season is something as easy as a forest fire that is happening high level, which potentially shuts down the rail system. These are things that we are going to have to work closely with.

Again, communication was a big thing that came out of the impacts of last year, and we will continue to work on those with all residents of the Northwest Territories.

The Minister must be a mind reader, leading up to my next question here. We are all quite aware of the drastic fires taking place in northern Alberta, which is in the rail system. Has the inventory for the communities been delivered and stored at the facilities in Hay River, ready for barging shipment?

Hay River has limited capacity to store all of the fuel that we ship up and down the system, so we have to work hand-in-hand with our supplier to meet the demands of our shipping season. We will continue to do that. It impacts our barge deliveries for the communities.

As I said, forest fires and stuff like that can have a large impact on the system. We are very concerned about the low waters this year. That is already right across the system, but we don't believe that will impact the deliveries to the Sahtu region, because that is before the Sansu Rapids. We are monitoring this situation very closely, and we will continue to inform this House as the season moves on.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks for that information there. Moving on to the last question, can the Minister elaborate a little bit on the long-range plans on the movement of goods and services and the MTS division? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I have said, this year particularly we have moved up our scheduled sailing dates and resupply for the communities. For long-term plans, we are working closely with the Canadian Coast Guard. We have reached out to them about how we can work more closely on the situation that could potentially arise in the Beau-Del again, particularly up on the Emerson Coast. This is something that we need to try to avoid, and we need to work very closely with them and their sailing schedule as well, to align with what we are trying to do, to resupply the communities.

I think that I have mentioned in this House before that we are having a strategic look at how we are storing our petroleum products, particularly in the Beaufort-Delta, and whether there is an opportunity to maybe expand on some of the resupply storage tanks in that area. I know that, in the Sahtu, for instance, we have enough fuel stored at Fort Good Hope and Tulita, and Fort Good Hope could actually support, if there was a shortage in that region, to Coville, and Tulita could certainly do the same thing for the Deline situation. However, up in the Arctic coast communities, it's a little bit tougher, and we need to have a look at what we are doing up there around our infrastructure needs and possibly what the challenges are going forward, if we are going to have to be able to have a larger supply of fuel in that region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.