Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. It appears that was a no. I guess my question is: if someone comes forward and identifies a rights-based cabin, we are going to put it aside, but we are going to continue to charge them? I know a number of people have been receiving letters in the territory. Would the Minister be willing to, once something is identified as a rights-based cabin, remove the lease fees related to it?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Will the Minister of Lands commit to reviewing the Project Assessment Policy and to clarify the department's role in project assessments in relation to the work that ENR does as well?

Thank you, Madam Chair. One of my concerns is that all are a number of rights-based cabins. There are even people's houses within municipal boundaries who are being directed by their leadership to not pay the fees. I question why this is being dealt with in the Department of Lands. My question is: if we are going to have true nation-to-nation relationships and Indigenous governments are taking a position to not pay lease fees, is this not something that would be better suited and dealt with by Executive and Indigenous Affairs?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just clarify that $649,000,000, those are the securities held by the Department of Lands, and that doesn't also include those under water licences, ENR?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the appropriate standing committee also be updated regarding the status of the ongoing disputes and issues and the responses to requests that have been raised by the NWT Foster Family Coalition?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize the Department of Lands has a lot of work to do and there is a lot of complication in land administration. My question is: I would really like to see a land-use plans for all Indigenous governments during the life of this Assembly. Does the department have the sufficient resources to do that right now?

Ongoing dialogue is important, but I was looking for a little more from the Minister of Health and Social Services. The NWT Foster Family Coalition publicly made a number of requests. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to responding to each of those requests made by the NWT Foster Family Coalition?

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?

I appreciate that commitment to bring this forward to the department to look into it. The main issue with a building standards act is we all know there is a multimillion-dollar deficit in infrastructure costs to the NWT, and GNWT infrastructure is built to very high-quality standards, but, in the communities where there is no enforcement of this, every single person building a building has to decide between quality, and often we are building buildings that are the cheaper option, which means that the cost of living in our communities consistently rises. A building standards act creates an even...

Thank you, Madam Chair. If we transfer the land in fee simple, and then it's not complying with a community bylaw, those bylaws still apply, and it's the responsibility of the community to deal with that. This issue of, you know, "If it's there's not financial compliance," but we're actually spending millions of dollars a year trying to get people in compliance, many of whom are Indigenous rights holders. There is a lot of complexity here that I believe the Department of Lands needs to take a better look at.

I would like to move on, though. In my riding of Yellowknife North, we have already...