Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll direct this question to the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs who has responsibility for consumer protection.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are committed to reaching out to Aboriginal governments to develop a working relationship or a better working relationship, and right now we are following up to the Detah meeting and have had a number of meetings and phone calls with all of the Aboriginal government leaders. We’re also following up, trying to do bilateral meetings with each of the Aboriginal governments in order to have a follow-up meeting.

As a government we’re developing what we’re calling an Aboriginal Government Engagement Strategy and as part of that we’ll decide whether we’ll continue the...

Yes. As a government we are already engaged. We have put together a team of deputies to examine options, to look at what the possibilities are. We will be putting forward a decision paper for Cabinet probably very early in the new year.

We will make sure that we put out the call for applications as soon as we know what the budgets are this year. For example, we won’t have our business plans and funding approved for 2012-13 until the end of June or middle of June, so we would put the call out as quickly as possible.

I was referring to a protocol that was put in place where we had to respond to committees by the end of July of 2011 I believe it was. Thank you.

As a government, we are reaching out to all Aboriginal governments to establish good working relationships, and I think this is the kind of area that we think we can use to advance our working relationships with the Dehcho First Nation to work on the Dehcho Land Use Plan. I guess ideally we would like to see something happen within a year if that’s possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We think land use planning is a good thing, and it helps with planning for development in the Northwest Territories and also to protect areas of environmental importance.

We as a government have been working since the 16th Legislative Assembly to develop a land use framework for our government. We are continuing to work on that. I think the work that the Dehcho has been doing on the land use plan has been very good. I think the past chair will be very difficult to replace. I think that we are getting very close. As a government, we want to work with the Dehcho First...

I think there are a lot of ways that we can work together. I think that with the advent of devolution and one of the things that the Government of the Northwest Territories wants to ensure is that lands that have not been selected by the Dehcho that there is some potential economic development that can be undertaken. I think that the areas that are of importance to the Dehcho First Nation, we want to work with them and the Government of Canada to make sure that they are clearly identified. We also want to make sure that there are lands available for land selection by the communities and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House today to attend a meeting with the federal Attorney General in Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, we will be working with my colleagues. I anticipate that we should be able to respond probably early in the new year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.