Bob McLeod

I believe we have committed to a meeting with the standing committee at the time of the May-June session to update Members on the work that will have been completed by that time and seek their input.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, consultation is being undertaken now on the energy plan and the climate change framework. We are receiving considerable feedback from the public on carbon pricing as part of that process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The working group is made up of a number of deputy ministers of various departments in the Government of the Northwest Territories that will be most affected by a carbon tax.

Considerable work has started on carbon pricing. The Department of Finance is lead on this, and their two main components on the work to date: first, the work of the federal government to better understand the impact of carbon pricing on the cost of living and doing business in the Northwest Territories, with the introduction of carbon pricing. The second is internal work to better understand the impact of carbon pricing on the various sectors within the Northwest Territories. These will help us design an approach to implementing carbon pricing in the Northwest Territories.

The way I see it is both the federal government and ourselves will receive the report from the ministerial special representatives. We expect to have it, we said, by the end of February. I expect that within the next couple of weeks we will have it. I will be meeting with Minister Bennett to determine a path forward, and once we determine the path forward we will take action. My expectation is that at some point we will work with our joint Cabinet and special committee. We will also work with the Aboriginal governments that are involved in the negotiations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In response to previous questions, I indicated that we were waiting for the Government of Canada to determine how they would approach their endorsement of UNDRIP. As the Member stated, in the United Nations, Minister Bennett indicated that Canada was going to unequivocally endorse the UNDRIP provisions. Subsequent to that, the federal Minister of Justice qualified that statement because we all wondered exactly what the Government of Canada meant. The federal Minister of Justice qualified that to indicate that they endorse the UNDRIP, subject to the Constitution of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is our expectation that the Ministerial Special Representatives Report will look at all of the challenges and issues that have prevented us from getting an agreement by now. So if that is part of the problem, I expect the ministerial special representatives will identify it and make some recommendations. Certainly before we went with the ministerial representative, we certainly felt or indicated that perhaps part of the problem was the mandates that we were working with.

So I am looking forward to receiving the report of ministerial special representatives, and I...

As we have indicated, we have a ministerial special representative that is working on behalf of the federal government and our government to have in-depth review of the process that we have been using to negotiate the land claims. Some of these land claims, negotiations, have been long-standing, as long as 25 years. Our expectation is that the ministerial special representatives will identify or have been tasked with looking at what the major roadblocks and issues are that are preventing us from moving forward and to make some recommendations that will allow us to move forward.

Thank you. Just to be very specific, Mr. Chair, the decrease is $117,000. There was $67,000 for elimination of a chief negotiator position and $50,000 for reduction of implementation negotiator funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2017-2018 Main Estimates for the proposed new Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. This new department, which will come into effect on April 1, 2017 represents the amalgamation of the Executive and Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, two departments which have much in common, face similar challenges, and are significantly interdependent. The April 1st merger was designed to strengthen communications and coordination among functions and, most importantly, to better serve a shared client base.

These estimates continue to...