Bob McLeod

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.

Thank you. I’d be pleased to do so.

Thank you. The Member is quoting the list that he’s holding in his hand as part of the Devolution Agreement was correct and it had a qualifier on there that this was not the finalized list that will be finalized before April 1, 2014. We’re being very transparent, and subject to confidentiality requirements, we’ll be as transparent as this government has always been. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t think setting up an Intergovernmental Council is going to change any constitution or any construct. Members here represent all of the people in the Northwest Territories and, as I said, with the legislation that would set up the Intergovernmental Council. I would welcome input from the Members as to providing input to us in terms of our participation with the Intergovernmental Council. Thank you.

The list that has been identified are those that have securities, proper securities. There are some sites that are very small in nature or have no identifiable contamination that are part of that list that the Member is referring to. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is something that has been negotiated with the Aboriginal governments and we’ve also provided regular briefings to the Members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is still a concern. We have done modelling in the past to reinforce the fact that the negotiations would probably result in a shortfall in funding in the neighbourhood of about $32 million a year, if you took all of the 15 negotiations that are going on and currently making some basic assumptions. We have brought this to the Aboriginal governments’ attention that have been negotiating. We have raised it with the Government of Canada and we have had processes on a regular basis to try to find ways to deal with the problem or the issue, and there are obviously...

I guess it depends if you figure that 50 percent makes up a significant portion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess the main change is that the Government of the Northwest Territories is now responsible for management of Crown lands, which formerly was under the jurisdiction of the Government of Canada. That will take effect on the transfer date of April 1, 2014, but through you, Mr. Chair, I will ask Mr. Goldney to go into more detail.