Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation does have a policy that looks at claims filed for reasons of failure on the Power Corporation’s part, but I would say, as the Member has highlighted, the issue that was facing many communities in the Beaufort-Delta in the last week were high winds and storms and the failures were due to the weather. We had a number of outages around the North that we had to send staff. We are very thankful for the staff in our communities. The Member has highlighted the dedication of our staff in the community of Tuktoyaktuk.

What we do have available to us is...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member raises many points in his comments to the statement I made and I guess what I would do is reiterate the statement itself, that there has been much discussion since the signing of the agreement-in-principle about the speculation that the draft devolution agreement at the time somehow prejudices current Aboriginal rights and negotiations.

In the statement as I gave in this House, that land claim agreements, and I’ll quote again, “land claim agreements are modern treaties and therefore are constitutionally protected.” In concrete terms that means if there were a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Executive has worked with the Minister of Justice and his department in this area and looked at jurisdictions across this country as to where an office may be situated, an office of the ombudsman. The research shows that for a position of that nature needing to be arm’s length from government and not tied to a particular ministry, most jurisdictions have that position tied to their Assembly. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I disagree with what the Member stated about not honouring those agreements. In fact, clearly, during the life of this Assembly, we can show many examples of where we have gone above and beyond working with Aboriginal organizations and governments across the Northwest Territories, right from working together on the Water Strategy, the Wildlife Act, where the groups have joined us in writing the act, to the agreement-in-principle and devolution process. In fact, the door remains open for them to join the process and, in fact, help design some of the negotiation mandates that would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As this question is directed, if I was not able to do the job then we would obviously go to the Deputy Premier in this case. As Premier I take direction from the Cabinet and Members of the Assembly in much of the work we do. In this area, the Member has raised a number of concerns and issues around the devolution agreement. As the devolution agreement is spelled out clearly, we look at the constitutional protection and rights of Aboriginal peoples throughout the Northwest Territories and that’s been incorporated. As for reaching out and looking towards working with the...

As I was trying to say, in the research that was done, a position of that nature is not put in place by the government in the sense of the Cabinet. It is put in, in this case it would be through the Assembly and the Board of Management, is my understanding. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend the Arctic Gas Symposium in Calgary. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, everything the Member said and his recent comments about the rights of Aboriginal people in the North, we agree. That is why the agreement-in-principle has the language it does about protecting Aboriginal rights. The section where the Constitution, Section 35, the land claims, we have that language throughout the agreement-in-principle. They are on the sidelines because they choose to. We have, in fact, invited them to be a part of this process going forward.

Following the signing, I have sent the letter to all the regions asking them to join with us again in this process as we go...

Mr. Speaker, the signing of the devolution agreement, the work that is going to start in preparation for negotiation is part of a long process that has included Aboriginal groups from the very inception of the framework through to a signing of the past government and a number of the groups that went into the federal government to the process we’ve engaged in as the 16th Legislative Assembly. Clearly, again, the AIP has language throughout the agreement that talks about protecting the rights of Aboriginal peoples across the Northwest Territories under Section 35, under the land claims...

The government, at this time with the existing arrangement, we have one seat on the Board of Management and, I don’t know; we’d have to sit down and talk with members of the board to see if, in fact, it is on their agenda. Thank you.