Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also have found some very good and positive changes in the Housing Corporation, which I appreciate. I know the Minister has excellent staff. I like to share the credit and think that committee has also contributed. In fact, he has staff who listen well and he himself listens well and reacts positively. I think working as a team, big stuff can happen.

I have a number of questions just on the energy front, and I know that’s always an ongoing challenge of putting in some better monitoring to see what the effectiveness of our actions are and stuff like that, which I...

Thanks to the Premier. Of course, I did refer to Schedule 7, Part E. Maybe the Premier is not aware that Nunavut is outside of that, but that wasn’t in there.

It is clear that in many cases the securities have not been collected by the federal government. We’re talking about the lists that are going to be transferred along with their liabilities to the GNWT. So it’s hard to imagine how they will be transferred, these liabilities, these securities will be transferred to us in full. The Devolution Agreement allows Schedule 7 of the agreement to be amended before April 1st.

So, if we’re not going...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are these meetings meant to continue, or will this Intergovernmental Council be fulfilling the roles of these intergovernmental meetings here? I guess, as well, how is the funding going to work for the Intergovernmental Council in relation to this? Perhaps they’re the same thing. Thank you.

While Cabinet proposes to roll out even more subsidies to the resource extraction industry, are they secretly deciding that fully paid security deposits are an unnecessary burden on industry that hinders our competitiveness?

We have spent the last week insisting we leave a positive heritage for future generations. This potential liability could do the exact opposite. I will have questions. Mahsi.

Thanks for the Premier’s reply there. I wonder if the Premier would take on the lead in suggesting that meetings be public and provide that transparency. Thank you.

Thank you for that information. Obviously this has been referred to as constitutional development behind closed doors and clearly it is. So what I’m trying to get at is how the public and Regular Members can participate in this governance council and perhaps you’ll have a toolbar in your tool kit I could borrow, Mr. Chair.

We do know, indeed, that Aboriginal governments and Aboriginal people have legal means with respect to consultation and this government has chosen to not quite ignore, but almost ignore those that don’t have Aboriginal and treaty rights in terms of meaningful consultation...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on succession planning, which I think this division is largely responsible for. This has been highlighted for a number of years now and our workforce has been aging, basically, as I understand it. I think we had a significant proportion of employees, something like 20 percent or maybe much more than that that were within five years of retiring. What is the current trend on that measure, whatever it is? Thank you.

Thank you very much for that response. Just on the negotiating tables that are active today, has there been a change, or are we still chugging along with roughly the same number? I don’t know if that information is public. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to be sure, I’m not sure that this information was included, but in addition to these active positions, are there unreported inactive positions and if so and they’re not funded, is the intent to delete those so that we’re not having to continue to manage those empty and apparently nebulous positions?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Premier stated in his opening remarks that the GNWT is now the lead in land negotiations. I’m wondering if I can get a little more explanation on this. I understand this is a result of devolution.

How has our role changed in negotiations and how is the federal role changed in terms of lands, or generally for the federal government, I suppose? Mahsi.