Bob McLeod

As people in the southern parts of Canada are wont to do, the Mining Association of Canada without any consultation went ahead and put forward their position on climate change. We understand that that’s not necessarily shared by the local Chamber of Mines. We are setting up meetings with them so that we will have very specific industry input and if we do our consultations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our officials have been having discussions with federal officials. We have no details as to those specifics. I expect we will have more information when the federal budget comes out later this spring. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I'm not aware of any lobbyists in the Northwest Territories, but we do provide information. We put it on the website, government website, of all the meetings that we have. Certainly, in our trip to Ottawa, we set up the meetings ourselves. We do not need to hire people to set up meetings for us.

Earnscliffe was not directly involved in preparing any materials or strategies for Cabinet's November 2016 mission to Ottawa and did not have a role in setting up any meetings with federal government officials.

We are still developing our framework of engagement with the federal government, and certainly we will reach out to our Aboriginal partners and also to the Members of this Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was certainly a concern of ours with the new government, the fact that there was little emphasis on a northern strategy. In a lot of cases we felt we were being treated as a stakeholder rather than as a government in our right. So the three northern territories got together, the three Premiers. We wrote a letter to the Prime Minister inviting him to meet with the three northern Premiers and to indicate that we were the true representatives of Canada's territories and that we wanted to develop a vision for the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Our government has reached out to the Privy Council Office to ask if the Northwest Territories could play a role in this ministerial working group. Although it is very important for Canada to get its own house in order, we feel we have many best practices that we could share with Canada around reconciliation and working with Indigenous people.

Mr. Speaker, national interest in a new relationship with Indigenous people is at an all-time high across Canada. We welcome that interest, and we invite Canadians to look north for a successful model of how to do that. The Government of the Northwest Territories has decades of experience working in partnership with Aboriginal governments to promote the best interests of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents. We already know how to share jurisdiction, while respecting each other's rights and responsibilities. Canada does not need to reinvent the wheel; we are happy to share our wheel with...

We use Earnscliffe to provide strategic information, and they do provide briefings. They did provide briefings to our government on the government environment in Ottawa. They do provide information on federal legislation, the work that is being done there, and also policy priorities.

Between the period that the Member refers to, they provided ongoing advice on our federal engagement strategy development on federal infrastructure engagement. They also supported us by providing communication support at Government of the Northwest Territorieshosted events related to the Aboriginal Affairs working...

Yes, I can confirm that the Government of the Northwest Territories has a contract with Earnscliffe Strategy Group of Ottawa, and they provide government relations and media relations services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.