Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The land claims negotiation process with Dehcho First Nations involves three parties: the Dehcho First Nations, the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. We will make sure that we set the foundation through transitional arrangements for the 18th Assembly. Thank you.
As my colleagues have been saying, I think we have 260 days until the next election. Obviously, an important thing for us to do is to make sure that women’s issues are provided for through the transition process both at the departmental level and at the highest level of this Legislative Assembly. We are also looking at gender-based analysis that’s been around for a long time. I think we want to revisit that to make sure that it is a lens that we run our programs through as we go forward, and it would be nice if we could find ways to increase the funding for the women’s organizations.
Thank you. The framework agreement does provide for that and the Dehcho negotiators had requested a main table session today and, ultimately, they decided to cancel it, but the provisions of the draft agreement do provide for that. So when we come to it, we’d be prepared to discuss it. Thank you.
Thank you. Certainly that is what we would like to do if we can get to that.
The whole premise and process of land claims negotiations is based on the Dene-Metis Comprehensive Claim from 20 years ago. It’s being fair to a process where we’ve seen four land claim and resources agreements settled based on populations from 20 years ago. For a party to wait 20 years to negotiate whose population increases, it means that there’s a difference between the settlements. That’s why both the Government of Canada and the Northwest Territories government are using the populations that were in place at the time of the draft Dene-Metis Comprehensive Claim 20 years ago. The population...
The Government of the Northwest Territories made a comprehensive offer to conclude the outstanding land and resource issues and a draft agreement-in-principle. The Government of the Northwest Territories offer included a land quantum of 37,500 square kilometres. This would result in the Dehcho First Nations having title to 37,500 square kilometres of land with surface title and approximately 17.78 percent interest in the subsurface of the entire Dehcho Settlement Area.
The Government of the Northwest Territories’ offer also included elements that would guide the completion of a Dehcho Land Use...
I’m very pleased to point out that we were able to provide for a $25,000 increase to a combined Status of Women Council and Native Women’s Association of the Northwest Territories. It may seem like a small amount, but when we’re holding the line on new initiatives on forced growth, I think that was an accomplishment, and we’ve been able to work with the Status of Women Council on an ad hoc basis and certainly, as part of that transition, that would be something we would identify for the next government that should be a priority, is to work the funding for women’s organizations that we work...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we see equitable participation of women in all aspects of the government. As well, we would like to see improvements made in a number of areas in the communities. Right now we’re working primarily with the Status of Women Council and the Native Women’s Association of the Northwest Territories and we would like to see more representation in this Legislative Assembly. I think that as a government, 64 percent of our employees are female and 50 percent of our deputy minister cadre are women. I think that certainly we want to see more women advance into the...
There’s always hope. From what I’m hearing from the two Members here, it seems apparent that the Dehcho First Nations have rejected the land offer that we’ve made, but that is a bilateral process. It was between the Dehcho First Nations and the Government of the Northwest Territories. We have offered to go to the communities to explain the offer that we’ve made, and we’ve also offered to anyone that invites us to come to present that. Obviously, at the end of the day, there’s always the main table, which involves the federal government, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the...