Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member may hang his head in shame but quite clearly the Government of the Northwest Territories had some difficult choices to make around both the volunteer sector, which is appropriately held in Municipal and Community Affairs, and the non-government organizations that we work with through Executive. The Member has discussed in contribution funding we’ve put in place for stabilization. Quite clearly, we have a difference of opinion on the volunteer sector. Within Executive we deal with those NGOs, as we call them, non-government organizations that we contract...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Well, the Member has been a Member for almost 16 years. He knows there is only one House in this Legislative Assembly. So for me to correct him with his experience here in the Legislative Assembly... As I pointed out in my last response, Cabinet gave me the authority to sign but not without having informed Members of the Legislative Assembly and all Members were aware of that. Yes, it is not unanimous, but in the interest of moving forward, we weighed all the considerations and the information before us and the decision was made on that basis. Thank you.

We have had regular contact through our staff to begin the very early stages of looking at a work plan. Of course, as we begin this next stage and get responses from communities, we’d be more than happy to invite the federal government to sit with us at the table and go over what this AIP means and confirm again the intention of not infringing on Aboriginal rights through this process. So we’d be prepared to invite them at this point. We wanted to, from an NWT side, by sending out the letter and as we get the responses to those letters, as I said earlier, discuss a format and then look at a...

If I understand it, I think the Member’s question was about the supp health Metis definition for that, and I’d have to get that additional information and provide that to the Member. We have a different role when we talk about definition. We work with the Northwest Territories Metis Nation and agreed with their work and it is more in the negotiation process of coming up with a definition. Of course, the federal government is not in agreement at all times. I must say that’s where we, as the Northwest Territories, are more progressive in that area.

No, Mr. Chairman. Once we get some confirmation on this specific area we’ll be able to do that. What I would, I guess, put out now is that we will pull the work that we have done in the areas that we’ve worked. For example, some of this was an additional communications person that we have within Executive now that helps us and then there’s the internal coordinating and working group. The other thing we’ve done, for example, is our radio broadcasting working with Aboriginal languages and talking about in general our government messaging throughout a number of departments.

Mr. Chairman, the decision to sign the agreement-in-principle was brought forward to Cabinet, was brought forward to Members of this Assembly. The facts were put on the table. Knowing that there would be concerns raised about going forward on an agreement-in-principle, knowing there was the potential for litigation, we took all precautions to ensure we did our work right. By signing that agreement, I believe in the work that has been done. I believe we have covered our bases. I believe in the issue of bringing Northerners the authority to make decisions over development and to benefit from...

Mr. Chairman, the process that we have gone down in the past, as I said a number of times quite a number of years ago, funding has been provided by both the federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories in assisting groups from their earliest days of the Intergovernmental Forum, the Aboriginal Summit and to the regional Aboriginal leadership meetings that we have established through the 16th Legislative Assembly. As following the AIP signing, sent a letter out to all the regions, and copied their leadership, inviting them to contact us to set up a process where we can set...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ll provide a list of the Metis locals and the funding that’s been applied. One of the things we have is a condition on the funding that they need to be in good standing with the societies and we’re finding many of the groups have now started signing up and getting their paper back in order. There are 17 in total, but we’ll get the information out on paper.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Earlier we discussed this area of the Stabilization Fund. There is a call that goes out annually. There are areas that are reviewed and the applications that go into four general areas, applications, regions of the NWT, the type of support being requested including management costs or governance costs, organizational development costs, extraordinary general operations costs, whether ongoing personal costs are being requested, and whether the proposed projects had not received support or where the same or similar of those supported last year for the same NGO. That doesn...