Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this summer I received a request from a constituent to deal with an issue that seemed to pretty clearly fall under municipal jurisdiction. Someone was illegally dumping domestic garbage in a small wooded area about 10 metres off of one of Yellowknife's most densely populated neighbourhoods in my riding. MLAs often receive issues which fall under municipal purview, and I make sure to forward these issues on to city Council to handle. But we looked it up and, sure enough, this piece of land in question is untenured Commissioner's land. So despite being deep within a municipal boundary, this land is actually ECC's responsibility. So that resulted in some back and forth between my office and the Minister's office, and in the end, to the Minister's credit, the Department did come and deal with the trash. Thank you to the ECC public servants who performed that unsavoury task.
But, Mr. Speaker, this statement isn't really about municipal waste. What I want to talk about is that I don't think this should have been a territorial responsibility to deal with in the first place. The city of Yellowknife is better equipped to deal with domestic littering within its boundaries, and a territorial department like ECC needs to focus its energy on matters of territorial significance. Technically right now that means issues outside and within municipal boundaries.
Mr. Speaker, we established different levels of government for good reason. The current duplication of responsibility leads to confusion and inefficiency, and it is high time we resolve this issue. Yesterday, a few metres away from this Assembly, tragedy struck as a canvas tent pitched on Commissioner's land was engulfed in flames. My colleague from Yellowknife Centre questioned the Minister of ECC about this, and as he was explaining his department's responsibility regarding encampments on Commissioner's land, the Minister said the encampments within the boundaries of the city are also partially a responsibility of the city, and there are certain bylaws that happen within the city that are relevant to the city that would need to also be adhered to. I think this comment highlights the dual jurisdictional issue well. It's confusing and difficult to administer as a result. We need to follow the lead of every other jurisdiction in Canada and ensure there are clear lines between territorial and municipal responsibility. It's time we put an end to the confusion, Mr. Speaker, and give our municipalities jurisdiction over the land within their boundaries. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member from the Sahtu.
