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

Thank you. At this point in time, I would ask the assistant deputy minister to answer that question. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Baetz.

Thank you, Mr. Baetz. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I am going to rephrase that. What happened is we started the work on the Yellowknife management plan, and then the Department of Lands failed to do adequate consultation, got some resistance from Indigenous governments, and now the plan is not complete. I struggle with why the Department of Lands, which is responsible for the land in the Northwest Territories, cannot do proper consultation. My question is: when will we see the Yellowknife periphery area recreation management plan complete?

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am not going to say that we didn't or we did. We are working on our consultation. We are working with Aboriginal groups. We haven't stopped working on this plan. To get it completed, we don't know what the completion date is as we move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to go to the equity lease line here. It's declining from last year. My understanding was that there was an issue with regard to the terms of some of these equity leases, and there was an appearance of lack of fairness around this and that the department was trying to bring some consistency with this and get all of the equity leases moved over into fee simple title.

It's not really a question of revenue here; it's a question about cleaning up this mess that we inherited from previous land administration. Whether it was GNWT and/or the feds, it was a bad practice. Maybe we want to get into that eventually, but it needs to be a fair and consistent approach. I would like to know: how many leases have we actually converted into fee simple title so far, as that's cost us a million dollars? Thanks, Madam Chair.

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

First of all, when we spent the million dollars, it's about the whole process. It's not just that, well, we did one or 12 or 14; it's about the whole process. If the Member wants a complete breakdown, we can give him the complete breakdown in writing, or does he want the number here today? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, look, I probably mischaracterized this. I know that there had to be a bunch of policy work, people reviewing the terms of all of these leases; you had to go out and do inspections. I get all of that. A lot of front-end work had to be done. I understand that. I just want to know, now, how many have actually been converted to fee simple title, and are we on schedule to get this finished and fixed? Thanks, Madam Chair.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. One has been completed in the settled region, and seven more are in progress. I know that, in the riding that I represent, when I was talking to the superintendent there, we're very close again. It's about the compliance issue; that's the biggest challenge, is to get people compliant, and we'd be able to move forward on those. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. We have eight done, 218 to go. How many more years of funding does the department require or was originally budgeted to get this equity lease issue completed? Thanks, Madam Chair.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. Right now, we have positions in each of the regions trying to address this. Right now, the funding is going to be sunsetted, I believe, next year. At that point in time, we will have to come back to FMB to make our submissions, and to committee, on it. Right now, we are not going to get it all done in the next year, but as we further progress moving forward, I can't give him an exact date, but the idea is to have it done within this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am a bit worried about that. Can we get a commitment out of the Minister -- I saw some of these, I think, in the last Assembly -- to get quarterly updates from the Minister on the progress that's being made in this program? Thanks, Madam Chair.

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

Yes.