Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to use this opportunity to recognize two constituents from Inuvik Twin Lakes: Sarah Jerome, who we've spoken about numerous times already today; I appreciate the work you've done. With her is her husband, Freddy Jerome. So welcome to the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think we still will have the capacity to carry out our inspections as we have done in the past. If you recall from MACA lands days, before it was converted over, one of the questions we kept getting was the amount of inspectors we had. I think since Lands has been formed, we have -- I am not sure of the exact number. I can get them, as far as our inspector division goes. We have a fairly robust inspection division that is adequately staffed. I will confirm that information, and I will share it with committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is correct that we are going to be looking at the acts because we have two acts that we're operating under right now. As far as having a line item for it, it's within the day-to-day operations of the division so there's no specific line item for it. If the Member's looking -- I'm not sure exactly what our budget is for that, but if the Member would like that information, I'm sure we could find it somewhere. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am pleased to present the 2016-2017 main estimates for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of $723,000, or less than one per cent over the 2015-16 main estimates. These estimates continue to support the objectives of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include

$1.578 million in reductions that the department was able to find without reducing core funding to community governments; and

$2.301...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that's just part of our ongoing work with all the inspections that we do after we got the Department of Lands formed in 2014. I would like to see us do a complete inventory of all the different lands that are out there. I'd like to say we're still learning the process, but we've been almost two years now. We'll put something together and make it part of my commitment to Member Beaulieu on giving the committee a briefing. Thank you. It's part of our ongoing work that we do, and we do the inspections and see what, try to catalog as much of the land that we...

Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes, the administration and control of the site has been transferred to the GNWT. However, through provisions of the devolution agreement, any historic liabilities are still the responsibility of Canada.

Mr. Speaker, the environmental remediation would be the responsibility of the owners. If the town owns the land, responsibility for remediation would be theirs. If the GNWT owns the land, then the responsibility for the remediation would be the GNWT’s. We have an Environmental Liabilities Committee, which would do an assessment whether contamination exists on the land and so the land would go to on our environmental liabilities list and would be remediated according to the GNWT priority and procedures. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where whoever owns the property would be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my first advice to the town would be to seek some advice from their lawyer or their accountant and in fact, I would advise all communities that find themselves in this similar situation to seek the proper advice. If the $685,000, or $600,000, just close to $700,000 is owed for property taxes, the town does have the ability to explore the recovery taxes as per the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

I appreciate the Member letting the department drive the bus when it’s convenient for Members on the other side. We will work with the Members as we have committed to do, and bring in a lot of the issues in the mandate forward. There’s times where we try being erased to the bottom with the other jurisdictions across the country as far as business tax go, and in our case, because of the high cost of delivering programs and services up here, it gets to be a little unaffordable. I have made the commitment to work with Members opposite when we go through our business planning process, and as we...

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as part of our mandate, I believe the support to small businesses was part of the 18th Legislative Assembly’s mandate, and it is something that we would have to consider. We’re going through an exercise and a budget session right now. We will be taking part in our business planning process in September, and we know it is part of the mandate. It is a concern of many of the Members in this Assembly, so as we continue to go forward, we will explore the possibility. I can say that we have probably about 50 per cent of our small business is in the Northwest...