Jay Macdonald

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this certainly has been a conversation that's been going on for a while, and I'm happy to report to this House that in June of this year, the city of Yellowknife and the Department of Environment and Climate Change signed a memorandum of collaboration that provides a commitment to work together and to prioritize the city's land transfer initiatives upon application as well as information exchange, coordination, problem solving, and planning to support timely and effective land transfers for the city. So that's the latest update. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. So the territorial forest management division has a territorial weather network that comprises of stations that are located in locations all across the Northwest Territories. It used to be primarily focused on fire. A number of years ago, there was a decision to expand the network to have a more climate focus, and these are additional investments to expand the network toward a bigger plan to meet overall -- to have around 100 stations totally to expand the synoptic coverage across the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unauthorized occupancy is certainly an area of concern. Within the Commissioner's land and public land, the ability for any resident of the Northwest Territories to occupy that land in a tent, you know, for in a camping situation, is within the allowable activities. Of course, they are responsible for following all of the associated rules and things that apply to that.

As far as the unauthorized structures, that is not allowed obviously. And as our officers go around and we attempt to engage with the individuals that we may or may not know who's created that...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this question is a little bit more involved and detailed and will require some additional work. So what I am prepared to do today is commit to the Member that I will reach out to the other departments, EIA and other departments, etcetera, have my department do that, and provide a response back to the Member on this question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member stated, you know, vacancy rate in the Northwest Territories in the RCMP, we are unfortunately number one in the country with the 22.9 percent unfilled position rate currently. And, you know, this has certainly posed a huge challenge for many of our detachments across the NWT. Fortunately, we have been able to address this challenge through the -- we've managed to get 18 relief members from across Canada have been brought in to provide temporary support to our communities, which has been very much appreciated, and we are working on the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the direct inspections and addressing of these things are done by the officers on the ground who have a mandate to do such work. As Minister of Justice, it's not my mandate. I certainly do have regular conversations with the folks at justice, you know, to ensure that we are considering these, but, once again, those things fall directly under the specific agency or department that have the mandate to enforce that, and I do not directly involve myself with the enforcement part of that work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of ECC does have officers that will do paroles to ensure that when requested that if there's a site that specifically has a potential issue and they're asked to do an inspection, they will gladly go and do that inspection. If there are issues that seem to be evident at the site, they will attempt to work with the folks that are there and resolve those and, if required, there are other legal avenues that could be pursued to come to a resolution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time there's no essential prioritization of the items from the audit. Many of the items identified in the audit, as well as the outstanding items from 2020, are quite crosscutting and involve a number of partners that really don't all have the ability to participate at the same level. So as a department, we are certainly committed to the recommendations. And within the audit report in tab D I believe, it does lay out our commitments to those recommendations as well as lays out specific timelines and whether we are fully committed and fully agree...