Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the best of my knowledge, the parcel that the Member is referring to is currently in consultation. And to the second part of the question, the resources that we've added are there to support land administration across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Okay, thank you. And, yeah, if the Minister could help us better understand if they've been working with the city on identifying lands that are needed for the military investments that have been identified and how that's going. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The City of Yellowknife has indicated that the Department of National Defence has an interest in land and, you know, this may result in a number of applications. And we have been having ongoing conversations with the city as part of our memorandum of collaboration that we signed last year. But I will pass to the deputy minister to provide some more detail. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will go to the deputy minister.
Yes, thanks, Mr. Chair. So as the Minister mentioned, we have a memorandum of collaboration with the City of Yellowknife. They've identified their interests in a number of areas. They've applied for a number of parcels of land. I think they have eight applications in that we're working through. And we've also had a conversation -- I had a conversation with the city manager late last week about DND interests and some of the city needs and some of the conversations that are happening there and possible applications that may come from the city for things like easements and other things to support city infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so is it fair to say, then, that with the addition of staff that -- or how do I put this. Clearly some more capacity was needed in the department to move things along as quickly as has been demanded. But what I am wondering is are there any timelines that staff have to work under? Is there a minimum or maximum timeline a land application will proceed through the department in and meet all the different requirements or how is -- does the department have any targets related to timelines in terms of trying to move things along in a more timely manner? I mean, I think that we've been speaking quite vaguely about the issue up until now. It's always been do it faster, but we've never really spoken about specifics. Like, can the Minister help us understand if there is a timeline that is expected or maybe even in the legislation that I am not aware of. And if not, how are they going to measure success of adding these staff in terms of things going faster than what? What is the baseline that they've established to help communicate what they're achieving. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think, you know, as the demand for processing the land transfers increases, we're certainly recognizing that and adding the additional resources. The one part of setting a specific timeline in this regard is that we don't control the whole process. There are a number of steps along the way that are controlled by others, so we can emphasize the areas that we have control on but it may not necessarily allow us to meet a specific timeline that could be set in the future because there are pieces in between that we don't have control of. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the department have a chart or an infographic or something that MLAs would be able to refer to, and the public even, to help us understand what the various steps are in the process, where we're trying to speed things up, where things get stuck, what we do when things get stuck, what processes are engaged in order to move things along when they get stuck on a part of the process that we don't have control over? Because it's -- yeah, I think that it would go a long way in helping us have a more informed conversation about this issue if we understood it better and the various steps within the process. Thanks.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will commit to certainly providing that information to the Members, and I will have the deputy minister walk through the process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. So a number of process steps. So the first being that the community government applies for a parcel of land. Once that's received, our group works directly with the community government to ensure that we have all the information we need, so completing this check. Then there's a consultation and engagement process that's undertaking with relevant and applicable Indigenous governments. At the same time, we would do engagement with GNWT and federal departments and community governments. After that is successfully completed, we would work on land sale agreements. Those must be prepared and signed. There may be a need for the community government to pass a land acquisition bylaw to get these parcels. And then once that's all done, the parcels need to be defined by a legal survey so that they can be registered with land titles pursuant to the Land Titles Act. And then following the filing of that at the land titles office, the Commissioner, on behalf of the Crown, requests a grant of the parcel to the community government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Is there any further questions? I will go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you for your indulgence, Mr. Chair. And so, yeah, obviously I want to ask some questions about that process that the deputy minister just laid out to me. So I really appreciate him laying it out clearly like that. I don't think I've actually had that before.
So I am trying to understand, at any one of these stages -- they all seem like stages except for the land acquisition bylaw itself that the GNWT is in control of that process. So can you help me understand, the answer that the Minister gave previously was that there are stages in the process where the department doesn't have control -- and so can you help me understand, outside of the land acquisition bylaw itself, which of course is on the municipality, how the department isn't in control of the process otherwise? Thanks.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will go back to the deputy minister.
Deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, you know, in terms of the steps, so the community government applies for a parcel of land. There may be a number of pieces in that application that aren't completed or not sufficient to be able to send out for consultation. So there's a point where it would go back to that community government to fill in the blanks. So that's an area that's outside of our control. Of course when we enter into our consultation process, we would send it out. We would ask for feedback within a certain period of time. However, if concerns are raised or potential impacts are identified, we would have to enter into a process with the Indigenous government to understand those and to see if there's a need to accommodate through that process. So that could take additional time, which is hard to define.
In terms of the -- once that process is done, there's land sale agreements prepared and signed. Of course, we have templates and wording, but there's a need for people acquiring the land to have their own legal reviews conducted, and there's often a back and forth there between council on some aspects. So, again, areas that are outside of our control. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I can't help but, as I hear that process and how it plays out, think about my experience at the land and water boards, and -- because it's the process I am most familiar with -- I think about how timelines built into that legislation worked in a very similar situation where sometimes the board would be dealing with something and sometimes proponents would be dealing with something, and the clock would be running when the board had it, and it wouldn't be running when the proponent had it. So I wonder if we could establish something similar to that kind of process for our own -- for our land acquisition process in the sense that it seems reasonable that any time the GNWT has its hands on it that we could establish what we consider to be a reasonable timeline for the GNWT to deal with, say, a completeness check or, you know, drafting of land sale agreements and so at least that people, when they apply for land, can be reassured that they're going to get an answer within a certain timeline. And any timeline outside of that that they're in control of, of course, that's on them. And I think that would be a fair way to run the process and a fair way to be transparent about what you can expect from GNWT when you come to them for land. So has the Minister or staff considered putting that kind of structure in place to maybe put better parameters around this process, which I think can probably feel a bit nebulous for people that enter into it. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can honestly say that I don't believe that we've considered that specific approach at this time. I think our focus has really been on, you know, trying to get -- deal with the tremendous amount of applications that we have in front of us. But happy to take that away and have the department have a look at it and see if that is something that, you know, could potentially benefit the process and see what the sort of administrative burden that it -- may come along with that type of monitoring. But happy to take it away. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from the Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think something that it might help with when I think about something along those lines -- it doesn't have to follow what the boards are doing in any way, but I just bring that up as one process that does have timelines associated with it. But one thing I am thinking is, like, you know, if I was working in that office and 420 applications came in and, you know -- I can just imagine, you know, people are asking you, you know, like, well, how come we're not moving on this, and how come it's not moving along? And staff are just dealing with a huge amount of applications, and we don't have expected timelines that things are supposed to move along with. And so staff are just kind of buried in a huge amount of applications and don't really have a structure to refer to to say we need more resources or we have -- you know, we have enough resources to be able to get these applications done in a timely manner. What ends up happening is instead, you know, MLAs just hear, you know, the process is too slow, the process isn't moving. And so it doesn't -- I don't think it gives anybody within the process parameters to look at and measure their success against. So I think it could be useful and helpful in this conversation.
The -- and, yeah, I think that, you know, for the pieces that end up not in the department's control, I was also wondering, I mean, does the department have some kind of public registry or a place on their website where people can go and look and track applications and see what the progress is on them? Do we have anything transparent like that at all, or are applications all handled behind the scenes. Thanks.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the process is not public in that way. The communication would be with the actual client directly from the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Fair enough. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I appreciate the department helping me better understand this aspect of their work. And, certainly, I mean, I think I join many of my colleagues in just -- you know, I would like to find constructive solutions to our problem. I appreciate the Minister adding staff to the department to try and address the timeliness issue but, yeah, I am making these suggestions with the hope of constructively getting us to a place where we are establishing kind of a baseline of expectation and trying to work from that in terms of measuring what a reasonable timeline is, whether we're meeting those timelines. I think that's a much better conversation to be having than just back and forth on it's not fast enough. I think it's always good in situations like this to be talking about specifics. So I will leave my comments there for this issue for tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Next on my list I got is the Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Similar to my colleague Mr. Morse, how does this process work for Deh Cho, Deh Cho and Deh Cho lands? How does -- I guess I need to understand that too. How does this work outside of municipal boundaries? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the process would work very similar in all of the territory with regard to this. There are some areas that may be withdrawn in areas that have unsettled claims that would require -- you know, would be identified through this process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Okay, so you said the withdrawn, unsettled claims. And so there would be agreements in place with the territorial government for access to these lands, correct? Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yes, so maybe I can just sort of run through how a community government can obtain land. So they can apply for untenured land within the municipal boundaries, and there is a requirement to meet the regulations under the Cities, Towns and Villages and Hamlets Act or the Charter Communities Act. Land can be applied for as a lease or transferred to a fee simple title. Available Commissioner's and territorial land within the boundaries can be identified using our website on the GNWT ATLAS map viewer. Applications for land must be submitted to the land management and administration division of ECC. All applications are subject to a review process as well as a consultation and engagement process. And parcels must be identified by a legal survey before they can be transferred to fee simple. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Okay, so in -- I am trying to understand this. In the boundary of the municipal boundary, there are fee simple lands in there? Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there are -- within that, there are Commissioner's lands which can be applied for and can be transferred to fee simple within the boundary. So there are -- within the boundary, there would be different blocks of land that are still Commissioner's land that no one has tenure of, that they belong with the Commissioner. And so the community could apply for that land with transferring it to fee simple at the end of the process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I will go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. You said community can apply for or individual can apply for? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am sorry, I made the assumption that you were speaking for the community. But anyone could -- any individual could apply for. Or the community. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
