Bob McLeod

We believe we have been able to successfully negotiate that, but recognizing that that field is still being proven. It’s still in the exploration stage but the potential is unlimited. I think there’s tremendous potential in the Sahtu and we’ll see it come to pass.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have had those discussions on several occasions with the Government of Canada, first and foremost during the development of the agreement-in-principle. We couldn’t resolve it, so it was punted to the negotiations of the final agreement, so to speak. We made some progress by the fact that they have agreed that royalties will be paid on two-thirds of the Norman Wells interest. The Government of Canada remains steadfast, though, that their one-third share is ownership, it’s a commercial interest and that it is not a royalty. On that basis they do not see fit to pay...

We definitely want to make sure that is the case. That’s why the legal and technical review of the final agreement that we’re doing right now is so important, because we want to make sure that doesn’t happen.

As part of the negotiations process, we were able to limit the extent of the Norman Wells oilfield so that for a period of time they were looking at all of the Norman Wells area that would be covered. We were able to limit it just to the existing oilfield from Norman Wells. We also discussed, and the Prime Minister mentioned it in his response to a question, that from time to time the Government of Canada sells off assets of commercial interest and if it does happen, then there might be a possibility there for royalties.

I should point out that in the ‘80s, or when the Gwich’in and the Sahtu...

I think we’ve had very good success with devolution in the past. As I’ve mentioned, we’ve had about… I think every program that’s with the Government of the Northwest Territories was a federal program at one time. At every instance we’ve been very successful at getting the incumbents to come over. I think the airports transfer was very successful as well. I think we’ve got some of the best airports operating around. The reason we’re using six months is so we can get an early indication from those who are not intending to come as part of the devolution, so we can either go out to competition or...

I don’t want to get ahead of committee, and I’ve committed to committee that we will bring the organizational design, and once we’ve had input from committee, I’ll be pleased to make it available to the public.

We put a significant amount of information on the website, and as we go forward with organization design, we will also provide that on the website. We will also provide for that as we go around to all of the communities in the Northwest Territories.

I would consider that as internal to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Every employee swears an oath of office and we consider it on that basis.

Maybe the Member could clarify. First there’s not enough information, now she’s saying there’s too much information going out. We want to make sure that we do this properly and we will commit… We had talked to the Members about those departments and we’re waiting for feedback.

We also learned a lot from division of the Northwest Territories, where Nunavut had transition agreements with the Government of the Northwest Territories. So we are looking at the possibility of doing that. We are also fully committed to decentralization. I expect that we’ll be able to handle the human resource requirements during the transition so we can continue to function without missing a beat. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.