Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to hear the question from a Member that understands the challenge that we’re facing. We have set ourselves a goal of increasing our population by 2,000 within five years, and in order to do that we have to have a better process than we have now. Since we went south, we went public, we’ve had a lot of e-mails, tons of e-mails from people that want to come and work here, and we are faced with a process that’s very cumbersome and we need to find a way to improve it. One of the best ways to do it is to increase our emphasis on direct appointments.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member indicated, these 15 recommendations came about, they are extraneous to the requirements of Bill C-24. These recommendations were not discussed or voted on in Committee of the Whole and there is no requirement for a government response; however, since we are a government that focuses on results, a government that gets things done, we are in the process of reviewing and responding to all 15 recommendations and the Minister responsible for the Liquor Act or the Liquor Board is coordinating and monitoring the response and the work that is being done by seven...

We don’t advertise our new hires either. Would his request extend to that as well? Perhaps I’ll leave it for the Hawkins government and the next Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member gets his picture in the local rag and he thinks he’s a movie star. The answer is no.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is the intention. We have sent a letter out to all the Aboriginal government partners that have signed on to devolution to sign on to the Intergovernmental Council Agreement. Once we have that legislation, the draft legislation will be finalized. Through you, Mr. Chair, I will ask Mr. Goldney to go into the detail of what will be in the draft legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It shows under 2013 actuals. Those were the amounts that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations spent on NWT Days. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right I have Martin Goldney, deputy minister of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations; to my left I have Richard Robertson, director of policy, planning and communications for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I can assure the Member that that’s what we’re negotiating for and that’s our ultimate objective. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it’s still our intention to do so. We presently have one person in the Ottawa office that we contract, a consultant to help us with intergovernmental relations and we’ve not come to the conclusion yet that we would staff it with a political person at this time, but we will continue to operate an office in Ottawa. Thank you.

Our government has financial procedures for identifying environmental liabilities and I also know that the mining legislation also has some provisions for confidentiality. We share information with the Regular Members, so we’ll continue to do so, recognizing there’s some confidentiality involved. Thank you.