I don’t believe that that is so, and that was said, of course, for eons about consulting with Aboriginal people. Fortunately, there’s good law for Aboriginal people and we are now finally responding in a responsible way to capture the input of Aboriginal residents. Unfortunately, we don’t have that same law, although we have the same obligation for those who are not Aboriginal residents.

So, would the Premier take this on to establish a division or some equivalent mechanism to ensure that we do, in fact, fulfill our moral obligations in the absence of a law to consult with the residents of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions, but first really a general comment in response to the Premier’s remarks. I notice the establishment of a new Aboriginal consultation and relations division. Overall, I think we’ve been doing pretty good in that area. Where I see us falling down is consulting with the rest of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Can we expect that there will be a division established to finally bring that up to standard as well?

Yes, somehow that’s not fitting with my perception of the numbers here. I appreciate that explanation. It looks like the Minister is on it. I’m talking about the jump from ‘13-14 about $5.5 million to about $8.5 million nowadays. I’m looking for an explanation of the increase. It hasn’t been through compensation and benefits and renewed contract with employees and so on. Thank you.

Thanks for the response from the Minister and his deputy. It is concerning. I mean, the Minister knows, and staff I’m sure, in several cases or many cases where this has been raised, we have worked with individuals. Staff have helped the individuals tune up their applications and so on, but in every case there’s still no resolution. So I hope, as you do that internal look, that you will contact people that have had this experience and they’re maybe on record as appealing, or perhaps ask MLAs to suggest constituents names that have been through this if there’s not a privacy of information...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to go on record as supporting the principle of the bill and I appreciate that the Minister has been working hard to consult with the public. However, I have had some feedback that indicates some Aboriginal governments are still a little bit surprised at how rapidly this is advancing. I know the Minister has been meeting with those governments and I think that’s being resolved, but I did want to mention there was some serious concern that hadn’t been resolved. I look forward to, if we give second reading today, that we enter into a process where much of that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. I look forward to that getting in place with the timing you’ve given us. Over the years, while this has been going on actual Midwifery Program positions have languished unfulfilled, as the Minister knows.

My final question is: What did we do with the hundreds of thousands of unspent midwifery salary dollars approved by this Assembly for the introduction and staffing of midwifery programs across the NWT? Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister. The Minister also indicated last session that the Department of Health and Social Services was consulting with the people in the Inuvik/Beaufort-Delta region, gathering their thoughts about the Midwifery Program. The Minister related that there were a number of challenges and concerns, but he was working through those with the Beau-Del authority.

Can he explain or tell the House when the Midwifery Program in the Beau-Del will be implemented? Mahsi.

Is it too much to ask that this government think in terms of lessons learned in today’s modern understanding of responsible, sustainable development? A mining advisory board that doesn’t include members that bring Aboriginal government, social and environmental perspectives to the table will fail to meet public interest yet again. Mahsi.

I’ll equally remind the Premier that this is the business of public government, which is the business of all residents of the Northwest Territories.

My second question has to do with the direction, I believe the division leads the development and review of negotiating mandates that guide GNWT negotiating teams at all land, resources and self-government negotiations, according to the document. We have a couple of unsettled land claim areas where we don’t seem to be making progress, and that has been true for quite a while, at least very minimal progress. I know the Premier would like to see...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Minister’s response and will look forward to him leading that debate on leaving fossil fuels in the ground and also sort of explaining to me – I’m just looking for the common sense here – about how we’re struggling so hard to get our relatively modest energy demands into renewable energy away from fossil fuels while we’re pushing to develop fossil fuels as fast as we can to feed whole nations and generate greenhouse gas emissions that are off the charts compared to the per capita consumption here. So I would appreciate that and I’ll look forward to the...