Daniel McNeely

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too stand up to support the motion. It will not only send a message on passage and direction to the general public that we serve, but it will more importantly send the message if the crossborder meeting happens, it'll send a safety message and comfort to the public that we represent that we are actioning and addressing and notifying and notice the drug trade. And as mentioned, more importantly, send that message out we are doing something. I see it dramatically, not only in the capital here, but throughout some of the communities I represent. To some degree, I'm just...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my questions -- or my statement on the Public Lands Act, my first question to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Can the Minister of ECC provide the House with an update on the status of the development of the regulations for the Public Lands Act? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When I look at the programs and the funding and the grants coming in there, it sort of encourages me to say here's solutions. As I mentioned several times here, I'm quite -- I would say quite proud about the actions taken by leadership to address the drug issue that we're experiencing right across the territory. But in our area, the leaders are grasping the problems and taking a hold of it and doing some planning and having some consultations. And this coming after the weekend, they're going to listen from the youth. So the youth is going to raise their list of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, it was more of a suggestion on how to improve our management system. The management system is really the governing organization of this department, and if we have collectively identified various weaknesses how do we fix that. So it was just a suggestion. We do have a co-management structure in place called our territorial wellness and regional wellness councils. So I've been telling some leaders back at the Sahtu, we have this joint venture, or whatever you want to call it -- in this case co-management system -- to deliver and improve our services because our people...

No further questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Another area of exploration and interest is back in my workdays here when Imperial Oil had their own community. They had their own store, and it was the only one in town. They had their own post office and their own dump site. And their own dump site now is in the area of the airport. So it's outside the proven area agreement but it's still their responsibility, in my opinion, and I think, you know, there might be some value in exploring the clean-up exercise before Norman Wells disappears and moves into -- or the oil field moves into reclamation. So who's going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that reply. I'm glad to see that there's some transitional ease or counselling or identification to keep the staff busy in other areas or other departments. And also part of transitioning, if the Minister could add to the transition list, maybe there's other companies out there, such as the security at the mines, that these tradespeople at the correction centre might want to move to if the availability was there. So I thank the Minister for that assistance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that explanation and understanding these cuts. I know it's a hard decision to dismiss people, having done that myself. But on the flip side here, it seems that the inmate capacity is sitting at 44 percent, which is good news. So it tells me that the incarceration rate or the occupancy is down. So therefore, is there plans to reduce the staff of that administration to house -- or the administration, the government employees, to reduce because of the reduction of the inmate capacity at 44 percent? Do we need all the employees still working? Thank...

Fine supplementary. Thanks very much there, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear we got a timeline, now we can expect our efficiency of land administration to be concluded. That's more of a statement. I look forward to working -- or will the Minister update us after the spring of 2024 is done? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply. My next question, as I said in my Member's statement, the Public Lands Act passed in this House in August 2019 yet its implementation has been delayed because the regulations have not been developed. Can the Minister explain why the development and regulations for the Public Lands Act has taken so long? Thank you.