Floyd Roland

We haven’t changed the convention or rule of the Legislative Assembly. From time to time Members have, when it’s a motion in the House that affects their constituencies, spoken to it. It’s not been a very common occurrence, but there is no convention or rule that says that won’t be done. If there’s a need for further clarification, we’re prepared to sit down and have that discussion.

We know for a fact that Members that become Ministers are somewhat tied down to a process — what they can do — in trying to work on behalf of their constituency. But there’s still an avenue for Members to address issues in the House, whether it’s through Members’ statements or speaking to motions that may come up from time to time. We generally vet that to see where that may go and would reflect on that as we come out in the discussion.

I’d be more than prepared to have a look at their work and what it entails. Just for the record, I don’t believe every manager gets performance pay in the Northwest Territories. I understand there’s a process, and it’s limited. We’re undertaking that review to have a look at how it’s been done in the past, and we’ll be prepared to take a look at what the federal government is doing going forward as well.

Under the existing scenario it would fluctuate year to year, depending on what the industry in the North pays to the federal government. It did at one point — I believe it was 2003–2004 numbers — and then we combined it with the mining, oil and gas development in the North, along with Norman Wells, and we came up with a figure of approximately $224 million.

Estimates have been made. For example, if the Mackenzie gas pipeline falls in place, that could almost double or even go larger, depending on the royalty rate that’s put in place. But we know, for example, that royalties aren’t paid until...

The first position we came forward with was one to see where we were as the Government of the Northwest Territories, have an initial meeting with the regional aboriginal leadership and see if there was continued support from the groups on moving forward with this file. In the last government there was a proposal sent forward to the government. We had that discussion. We know the same groups continue to be on side. Others say they’ve got other initiatives to proceed with before they want to see this file moved along. So we’ve had that discussion.

From our perspective, as Members know, we’re...

Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to recognize somebody who’s travelled down from Inuvik, Mr. Norm Snowshoe, as well as my executive assistant, Bobby-Jo Greenland.

Past numbers have been put out there; for example, dollar figures in the area of $224 million a year that flow to Ottawa in the form of royalties. Now the federal government says the Norman Wells situation has to be excluded from that. We look at the last public accounts that were filed with the federal government, and the most recent figure that we’ve seen from the other mining industries has shown that it’s been in the neighbourhood of $34 million. You take a look at the equalization program that has formulated along with the territorial formula financing, and the inclusion and exclusion —...

We’ve had a number of discussions, both with the federal government as well as with the regional aboriginal leadership, around the issue of devolution and resource revenue sharing. I’ve had an opportunity to speak with the Prime Minister on this issue, as well as with Minister Strahl, regarding devolution and resource revenue sharing. We continue to have some discussions and try to see where we may be able to move this file.

Mr. Speaker, the one-time funds I speak of are those adjustments that happened from past corrections to transfers from the federal government. Those are one-time. The Building Canada Fund is cost-shared dollars, and it’s for capital only. There are no O&M dollars attached to that, so that’s something we can’t plan on — making increased expenditures to O&M that will continue to grow with forced growth on an annual basis.

As well, Mr. Speaker, we have to recognize that the last government — and this is the issue…. You’re looking at the history of the government, where we’ve had to account for one...

We’re willing to sit down and look at those types of options with the Members and committees to see what avenues we can look at. We realize there are pressures there and we’re trying to find ways to mitigate that.