Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The federal government, or AANDC, still has responsibility with regard to some specific lands, so through you, I’ll ask Mr. Fulford to go into more detail, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my right I have Kelly McLaughlin, the director of legislation for the Department of Justice; and to my left I have Jamie Fulford, legal counsel with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On occasion, especially in the discussion with the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline there was an indication there that a surface rights board would have facilitated some discussions, because without a Surface Rights Board Act, the only tool available to deal with disputes would be arbitration. But with regards to the specific question, Mr. Chair, through you I’ll ask Mr. Fulford to respond. Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the Bill 1, the Reindeer Act. The passage of this legislation is an important step towards implementing the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will administer the Government of the Northwest Territories’ new authorities under the Reindeer Act.

Under the Devolution Agreement, the GNWT is committed to “substantially mirror” Canada’s statutes and regulations that are being repealed or made inapplicable to all land, except federally retained land, transferring to the GNWT...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 17, Northwest Territories Intergovernmental Agreement on Resource Revenue Sharing Agreement Act, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Premier, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) and have Bill 16, Northwest Territories Intergovernmental Agreement on Lands and Resources Management Act, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Kam Lake, that Bill 15, Oil and Gas Operations Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill substantially mirrors the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act in accordance with the requirements of the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

This government spends a tremendous amount of dollars on consulting with the general public on any kind of strategy. I could probably list off about two dozen, but I guess the ones that come to mind are the Water Strategy and the forest management, devolution and what have you. We go out and we give everybody the opportunity for input. We go to the communities. We call meetings and we also use the Internet, our website, where we put out information and we seek feedback. There are all kinds of avenues for the public to have input into our policies.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The whole premise of this government here, its Intergovernmental Council is made up of governments that own land, and together we will manage land in the Northwest Territories. We have this public government structure that has 19 MLAs, and through this process we will represent all of the interests of the people of the Northwest Territories.

For the bills that are passed and given assent to by this government, this government has the authority to deal with them like any other legislation. Obviously, our expectation is that we should at least let them run, have us implement them so that we can get them going. We said we always want a seamless transition, and we recognize that we have some very important responsibilities so that we have to work with the people and also with the third parties and the other Aboriginal governments that are out there so that we can have some certainty and we can have some due process. But the way this...