A Mandate commitment of the 18th Legislative Assembly states, “in order to advance the territorial vision of land and resource management in accordance with the Land Use and Sustainability Framework, we will evolve our legislative, regulatory and policy systems by developing and proposing amendments to the Commissioner’s Land Act and the Northwest Territories Lands Act”. This initiative marks another step in advancing the GNWT’s post-devolution vision for an integrated land and resource management regime that is designed by Northerners, for Northerners. Addressing administrative and technical issues in legislation now will help to improve land administration practices in the short-term. Meanwhile, broader discussions that include further policy and legislative analysis about the future of a more integrated and modern land management regime for the NWT can continue.

The GNWT expects that proposed amendments to the Northwest Territories Lands Act and Commissioner’s Land Act, along with related changes to land administration tools such as regulations, policies, guidelines and procedures, will support land administration by:

• providing adequate authority at appropriate levels to deal with essential components of land administration
• providing flexibility to create and implement regulations and policies to support legislation
• aligning the Northwest Territories Lands Act and Commissioner’s Land Act where appropriate to enable consistent administration and application