Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories actively participates as part of the Canadian delegation of the Arctic Council and their continued advocacy for a strengthened capacity of the permanent participants. As a government, we will continue to work with Canada on areas of common interest, however there is not a separate or formal role for territorial governments in this forum, however we do have officials that participate and we attend as there is an identified role for our presence. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I have had the opportunity to discuss with Mary Simon on her work on the Shared Arctic Leadership Model. Ms. Simon is still working on her report and recommendations for Minister Bennett, which I believe will be delivered in December of 2016. We see a great deal of potential in the Arctic, but it requires a broad range of support from Canada, including support for communities and Indigenous organizations.

A key priority to further positive change is to continue to enhance our control over our own destiny as Northerners, including transitioning important legislation like the Mackenzie Valley...

I'm quite prepared to raise it with the Aboriginal government leaders, and in the past the Aboriginal governments have offered to come and meet with the committees and that offer was never accepted, but we certainly can raise it again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We invited the Chair of the Standing Committee of Priorities and Planning to attend and also this is a meeting of the Aboriginal governments that have signed onto devolution, and I have responded in this House in the past, we have put forward a suggestion that other MLAs could be invited to attend as observers, and the Aboriginal governments have indicated they would prefer to keep the membership participation of the table to two representatives from each Aboriginal government that has signed on.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "The NWT and Canada: Partners for a Sustainable Future." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We meet with the Aboriginal governments once a year and we have a secretariat, and I'm not sure exactly how the Member would like to see the government involved but you know we have our regular briefings with the standing committees and we can certainly offer to provide a briefing to have that discussion.

Mr. Speaker, we had a meeting on Friday. It was very well attended by all of the signatories to the devolution agreement, and the discussion was to review the recommendations of the secretariat and also to review implementation of the devolution agreement, specifically related to the commitment to devolve and evolve and to understand what the priorities of the Aboriginal governments were. We also gave an update on the recreational land management initiative of this government and on climate change and energy, the consultations that we will undertaking as a government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize several Yellowknife South constituents. First of all, Mr. Eric Bilodeau. Mr. Bilodeau is a student studying politics in the North. Welcome to the House. Also two pages from Yellowknife South constituency, Drew Wolfe and Elle Mitchener, and I also recognize all the other pages in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Glen Abernethy will be absent from the House today and tomorrow to attend the FederalProvincialTerritorial Ministers of Health Conference in Toronto, Ontario. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I don't see it happening again and again, but it's something, as I say, it's a constant process, we discuss it all the time. Every issue, every decision paper, every information item dealing, responding to the media, we endeavour to make sure that committees, especially the chairs of the appropriate committee and the MLAs are made aware of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.