Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, further to my statement today, given that the City of Yellowknife has stated that it has little residential land for sale and the city therefore relies on the GNWT for land transfers before new development can proceed, what immediate measures can the department implement, the Department of ECC to be specific, to accelerate the release of priority parcels within the municipal boundary of Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in 2025, the Department of Environment and Climate Change signed a memorandum of collaboration with the City of Yellowknife and part of this document established a framework for information exchange, for coordination, problem solving, and planning between the department and the city to help support timely and effective decisions on land. So we continue to work closely with the city in that direction. Currently there are eight applications that are in -- nine applications that are in process. Two of those are with land titles department right now, one is waiting on a survey, and six are in the consultation process. So we continue to work closely with the city to follow that process and ensure that we are processing those applications as quickly as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly appreciate the Minister's responsiveness to the pressure in this House about this issue. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister feel that there are specific components of the department's review and approval processes that could be streamlined or conducted in parallel to reduce processing timelines for municipal level housing and development applications? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, maybe I will just go back a little bit to the process after devolution.
So during devolution, the delegation of administration and control of lands was delegated from the federal government to the Government of the Northwest Territories. So as part of that, we are an arm of the Crown and so part of that responsibility in the transfer of lands requires us that we must honour the rights of Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations therefore that requires the extensive consultation process that we do not really put a timeframe on. The other component here that I think that is really relevant is that we don't have the ability to further delegate that authority down to another party. So this process and how we work collaboratively with the city, ensuring that we're moving this as quickly as -- ensuring that our internal processes are efficient, that we're reviewing applications quickly, noting any gaps or missing information, quickly responding to the city or the applicant to get that information and move that application forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister responsible for Environment and Climate Change. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister getting into more specifics on this issue and would just note as we were talking about in Committee of the Whole the other night, Mr. Speaker, the land and water board process is well celebrated in the Northwest Territories for Indigenous participation and land claim implementation, and that process has timelines associated with it, Mr. Speaker. So I think that it would be possible to put timelines around the process and still engage in that collaborative way that the Minister is speaking to. So would the Minister look into establishing timelines for that part of the process? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, happy to take that away and go back, have a conversation with my department to see which of the steps that we have control over that we're able to implement some better time guidance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
