Bob McLeod

The consultation process for the Peel River Watershed occurred in the previous… It’s taken the Yukon government seven years to come to this conclusion and the consultation period was the first part of the seven years. The previous Premier had written to the Government of the Yukon indicating that they supported 80 percent protection that the Gwich’in had requested through the consultation process. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I believe it has all been shared with the Members, but I will resubmit them to committee. Thank you.

I’ll check with our website designers to see where you can find it. We’ve done better than that. We’ve written committee and updated committee on a regular basis and we’ve even had responses from committee commending us on the work and asking us for more detail on why we are moving the program review office from the Department of Executive to the Department of Finance. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the Member has acknowledged the breach and now he’s trying to use process to not withdraw his remarks.

In this House, the process has always been you raise it at the first opportunity and almost every instance that I can recall, the 17th Assembly, the 16th Assembly, invariably the Member waits until the next morning so they have a chance to review Hansard. There’s no process for trying to find out how a Member feels when he’s making the remarks, but it’s very clear that if people outside this House can’t speak to protect themselves and it’s not normal process...

Aboriginal governments are governments in their own right and it’s not up to me to take away that right for them to legislate as they see fit to do so. That’s part and parcel of being a responsible government. We will continue to work with them and we have five years after devolution whereby we will be reviewing the MVRMA, at which time we can work together during that period to improve the system, and even as we go forward after five years, to develop a system that will work better after that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re working very closely with the Aboriginal governments. We have five out of seven Aboriginal governments that have signed on to devolution. We’re just finalizing signing ceremonies with two more to sign on. We’re working with the Dehcho First Nations. We expect that we’re making good progress on the discussion of land use. We expect that after a short period of consultation, there’s every indication that the Dehcho First Nation will sign on, and we are entering into a similar process with Akaitcho First Nations.

It is our intention to work very closely with the...

We will commit to working with our Aboriginal governments to improve in every area. Thank you.

We’ve had a number of discussions with all the Aboriginal governments that have signed on to devolution and the so-called Northern Regulatory Improvement Initiative.

Our government stands by what we negotiated in land claims over 20 years ago. For example, the Gwich’in Agreement, which was signed and negotiated 20 years ago, reads that “Where, by legislation, any other land and water board is established having jurisdiction in an area which includes the settlement area, it shall assume the powers and responsibilities of the land and water board in 24.4.1 and shall become the land and water...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I truly believe that will be the case. I think we’re seeing evidence of that now, working with the Dehcho First Nation where we’ve been able to work together to resolve some very difficult, complex issues around land on a without prejudice basis. I think the incentive for both of us to do it was devolution. I think that by putting rigour to the process with oversight by myself and the grand chief of the Dehcho First Nations, I think we’ve been able to work together and find some very innovative solutions to long-standing problems, and I’m really looking forward to the...

The lead in this area is ENR, and ENR has developed a partnership with the Walter Gordon Foundation in other areas. So they monitor and review the reports that come out. I know I’ve met and had a question and answer session with the Jane Glassco participants. They do send me packages and we have the Department of ENR review them and disseminate recommendations or information that is helpful to our government. Thank you, Madam Speaker.