Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we could just have a contract put on our desk, we would look at it.

Realistically, though, we know much work needs to be done on the Mackenzie Valley Highway process. I’ve had discussions with my Cabinet colleagues, as well as shared some of the vision of that with the Prime Minister at the Western Premiers’ Conference, and we’ll continue to build on that.

Mr. Speaker, a lot of the work — for example, the third-party accountability framework — has been done, and we’re doing a review of it as well as going forward. A number of areas are going to be looked at further to get input from the sector and the NGO sector as well as the volunteer sector.

I’ll get back to the Member and provide information as to how this will be undertaken, and the timing of it as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take the opportunity today to inform the Assembly of an important national summit I am co-hosting with the president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, Ms. Beverley Jacobs.

The National Aboriginal Women’s Summit will take place in Yellowknife from July 29 to 31. The summit will be attended by about 150 aboriginal women from across Canada, along with representatives from the federal, provincial and territorial governments and national aboriginal organizations. The summit will advance the ongoing work toward improving social and economic...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Members for their comments on this. It was indeed a day in the history of Canada to be remembered. The fact that the Prime Minister of Canada — a present-day Prime Minister — apologized on behalf of the people of Canada for the actions of a government in a direction and a policy of assimilation…. I believe that apology to be a sincere one for aboriginal people across the territory and the country of Canada. We as the Government of the Northwest Territories felt we needed to recognize that.

As we’ve heard Members say, there are still a lot of things that...

Mr. Speaker, for any changes we’ll make or look at making, we’ll be sitting down with Members to look at what work has been done. At that point we’d be prepared to expand that further to our business community and people across the North. We need to sit down and come up with a bit of an action plan looking at where things are coming together, sharing that with Members and then discussing the next steps from there — much the same process we will be following with the Business Incentive Policy work.

Mr. Speaker, we need to pay attention to that file. In fact, we need to renew it. I guess that is a way of putting it. At one point the Government of the Northwest Territories did venture into the P3 area. That first movement wasn’t very satisfactory, so we’ve agreed that FMBS would take charge in that area, as it relates to financial matters. Hopefully, as we come back together in the fall, we can show Members the work that’s being done on it and provide an update at that time.

Mr. Speaker, I’m hoping that as we get on with work now after the session’s over, we’ll be able to put the energy into getting some of the package together.

As I stated earlier, I’ll work with the Member to provide information as to the timing and the structure. We’ll look at getting the information. I don’t have that with me at this point, but I commit to get that to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, there are a number of departments involved in different areas. The specific area of sector financing is being undertaken by the Financial Management Board Secretariat.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On June 21 the people across the Northwest Territories will once again be celebrating National Aboriginal Day. This is a day to celebrate aboriginal peoples’ rich and diverse cultural heritage and to also acknowledge the valuable contribution of aboriginal peoples to the healthy development of our communities, our territory and our country.

The Government of the Northwest Territories honours and respects the importance of aboriginal cultures and the vital role aboriginal people play in contributing to our economic, social and political development and in enhancing our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 18, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 1, 2008–2009, be read for the third time.