Bob McLeod

I don’t think that’s totally pervasive across the different regions that have not settled land claims or self-government. I know in the Sahtu is the approach that was negotiated through their land claim. I know that the Dehcho, not every community is in that situation. The Acho Dene Koe went on their own, but that was agreed to with the Dehcho First Nations. They K’atlodeeche First Nation decided to stick with their reserve and have a different process. Wrigley moved out, but I don’t think they’ve formally severed their ties yet but…the Akaitcho… The Salt River First Nation already settled...

I found Minister Valcourt to be very well briefed on all of the files and he was very knowledgeable about Dehcho First Nations. We discussed some issues that the grand chief had raised and the Minister indicated that his staff would be getting on the file right away.

It’s a three-year board plan, so I guess it’s a multi-year plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Engagement is where we will be going to the communities, and describing and advising the public about the Devolution Agreement. Consultation is the legal requirement that is associated with Aboriginal governments that have land claims and treaty rights. Thank you.

We’ve been trying to work with all of the tables. The federal government has also started, I think, their review of the negotiating tables. They want to focus on the land claims tables that seem to be making the most progress. They undertook surveys but we haven’t seen the results of the work that they’ve done. At least they haven’t shared it with us. We know that they have been doing that. We are also having some bilateral discussions with some of the negotiation tables to see if we can work together, at least from the Northwest Territories side, to see if we can make progress.

I think the approach that we’ve been taking is that if there were resources that became available, either through greater efficiency or through restructuring, we’ve been converting it to GSOs, at least certainly in Executive. I don’t think we’re taking the position that we’re going to go and ask for additional dollars to create GSOs. That certainly wasn’t our intention. As resources became available and we could make the case to convert it, we were doing so.

Mr. Chair, I would like to remind the Member that we have been at it for 12 years, and this latest round we have been to every community several times. We do have our Aboriginal partners that have been very active in this area. We have been to every community. We have also been with Aboriginal governments. We have briefed; we have fulfilled every request. It is our expectation that the resources that we have will allow us to do the job and meet the requirements for consultation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We still have the same complement of tables, 15 negotiating tables. We are getting better at negotiating and we are also taking the approach of doubling up negotiators at some tables so that one negotiator can handle more than one table. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I don’t have that information, but maybe if the Member could share it with us as a start.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That responsibility lies with the Department of Executive but I’ll answer it anyway. Under the AIP on devolution, Section 6 provides for an Intergovernmental Council essentially so that all of the different governments can work together to manage the jurisdictions together but each being responsible for their own jurisdiction. We would have this council so that we would all work together to deal with land issues and resource issues and so on. That was the idea behind the Intergovernmental Council.