Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Lands. In regard to transferring Commissioner's land within city boundaries to the City of Yellowknife, what formal arrangements have been put in place at this time for this initiative and what are their timelines? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Lands.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The department has been meeting with the city several times this past summer and most recently as of Monday, February 24, when I had the opportunity of meeting with the city as well as YK Dene First Nation. We have a working group in place that involves the city, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Lands, and E and I, and so we are working together on this issue. The department's goal is to have the process document done hopefully this year, and then we will work on transferring the lands in the future. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

This past weekend was the NWT Association of Communities AGM in Inuvik. Since long before the election of the 19^th Assembly, the topic of Commissioner's land within the City of Yellowknife has definitely been a hot topic. What commitments were made at the AGM in regard to the transfer of Commissioner's land to municipalities?

Yes. We did attend the NWTAC meeting, and there were no commitments or no questions asked from the association in regard to this issue, but I can tell this House and the public that we have had communications with the various tax-base communities on how we can move forward on this issue. This is very complex, and we are trying to work together.

I am wondering if local Indigenous governments are supportive of land-transfer initiatives within the City of Yellowknife.

Like I said, last Monday, May 24^th, I did attend the meeting with the City of Yellowknife and the YK Dene. In that conversation, in that meeting there, basically what I believe the conversation, what we heard, was that they were supportive of this as long as it does not infringe or interfere with the Dehcho Process.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake, final supplementary.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It's my understanding that the City of Yellowknife requested a memorandum of understanding in partnership with the City of Yellowknife, local Indigenous governments, and the GNWT. Will the Minister be prepared to satisfy this request for a memorandum of understanding, committing to working together on land-transfer solutions? Thank you.

An MOU may not be the necessary document or process we need to do moving forward, so what we are doing is we are working with the municipality to come up with a document that will ensure, as we move forward 10, 20, 30, or 40 years down the road. It's going to meet the needs of the residents of Yellowknife and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice, regarding cannabis. Madam Speaker, we find ourselves here, a year and a half after cannabis legalization, with the promise being, after one year, we would have private cannabis stores in the Northwest Territories or at least be along the road. My question is: when will we see our first private cannabis store in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I acknowledge that there certainly has been a delay since even, I believe, the date that I provided to the House with respect to some aspects of the process. In order to have a cannabis store, there was first an RFQ, request for qualifications, that was sent out this summer, and then there needed to be an RFP, a request for proposals. That process was due out in January. I acknowledge that it's now not January. I am assured that that will be complete and that that will public this month. I will certainly ensure that I am doing my best to follow up on that date. At that point, how quickly private individuals or private companies are able to develop their progress per store will be in the hands of those individuals or companies. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister of Justice's response that we will see those RFPs out this month, and I will encourage my constituents who are interested to apply to that process. I had a constituent attend the uptown liquor store the other day, the only place to buy cannabis legally in town, and there was, in fact, no cannabis there. My question for the Minister of Finance: why, 18 months after legalization, do we still not have our procurement process in order?

There have actually not been very many stock outages since January of 2019, though there was indeed some delay recently. I am told that the resupply did come in last Friday and that it is something that we are continuously monitoring. Staff from the Department of Finance are involved in ensuring that the supply is regular and, indeed, I believe met with one of the repliers just last week. It is certainly our hope that, as we continue that relationship, that there should be hopefully fewer challenges for those seeking to avail themselves.

I want to express the issue here is that when someone attends a legal cannabis store and there is no cannabis, they go to the black market, which I can assure the Minister of Justice is still very much alive and well in the Northwest Territories. That means we are allowing criminals to continue to sell cannabis as well as not gaining the tax revenue needed from this. My question to the Minister of Justice is: what is currently happening to find new sources that can meet the demand?

The Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission is tasked with identifying new suppliers, where they're available. It is a challenge that's being faced by our other territorial and provincial partners. It's one that we'll continue to talk to them about their own practices and see if there are options in our procurement that we haven't considered. As I say, I am alive to the ultimate impacts of not having supply and what that does. Again, it's a fairly new system across Canada, so hopefully, as all the provinces and territories work that through, that we will see a general improvement to the legal supply to all provinces and territories, including ours.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions, Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have some good news. That is that the majority of provisions are expected to be brought forward, or brought into force, in the fall, this fall of 2020. That would include the changes that are being made to reduce some of the fees. With respect to changes that are going to be made that will impact on smaller communities and municipalities, Madam Speaker, a working group has been formed with representatives of the small communities to ensure that they are part of the process to develop those regulations. That working group now has set dates when they will meet, and as they meet the next stages will be developed in conjunction with that process. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that great news. Unfortunately, it looks like it's going to take about one and a half years to finally get the fees reduced, maybe even closer to two or three years from when the "what we heard" report came up. That's still good news. There are a number of areas that were identified in the "what we heard" report, such as a training, identification of classes of records, that do not require an ATIP application. Can the Minister give us a sense of the priorities in terms of that work and when it's going to be implemented, as well?

The training and the guidelines, resource materials for all the different departments, that is either has been or is being developed right now, with some training due to begin, I understand, in April. As to the specific training schedule, of which departments, I don't know that offhand. I will commit to providing that to the Member as I can identify it. I can say that, certainly, reducing the fees has been a priority, and ensuring that movement to provide better access to information, there is one area of documents that will be identified, so they can be available without having to go through the process, that is also a priority that we will be working on.