Floyd Roland

Well, first and foremost, let’s not discount our own staff within the Government of the Northwest Territories from having a good level of input and credibility when it comes to this kind of work. It’s a mix of all services, whether it’s NGOs, but let’s not discount the work of our own people that are in the trenches, as well, day to day. I think bringing those two together can help at the end of the day and our goal is to have the work done before the end of the life of this Assembly.

Thank you. The work that we need to do now from a Government of the Northwest Territories side is we’re involved heavily in the field of dealing with the poverty issue in the North with quite a number of departments: the Housing Corporation; Education Culture and Employment; Health and Social Services. We’ve got quite a number of others: ITI, Justice, in some form or another. So we need to look at our end of the work that’s being done and relate that to the work that’s been done by the NGOs as well. So the work they’ve done will help inform the work that we’re going to and are doing.

I think...

Thank you. First and foremost, the process that’s been well established within the Northwest Territories right from self-government talks, land claim talks to this agreement-in-principle, the parties have been involved. Aboriginal governments and groups have been involved in this process. They’ve had their hands on the document for years. The specific document that was signed off by the chief negotiators and the letter sent to myself and Minister Duncan and additional letters were also sent to all the regional leaders in September. So we were waiting for their response through October and...

This would be true for the GNWT. If we did not sign the agreement-in-principle, we would not have access to the $4 million that would help us in the transition work going into negotiations. We will have to come up with our money in negotiations as a Government of the Northwest Territories. The federal government has set up $3.9 million for Aboriginal governments to prepare for the work and the transition into negotiations. As they sign that, they will have to sit down with the federal government to work out that funding arrangement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Robert C. McLeod will be absent from the House for the remainder of the week and the following Monday to attend the federal-provincial-territorial Ministers responsible for Sport meeting and Canada Winter Games in Halifax. Thank you.

I know the funding that we’ve discussed, the portion for the GNWT and the portion for the Aboriginal governments through this agreement-in-principle signing, by signing on you get access to that. The portion for Aboriginal governments, they need to sit down with the federal government and work out that arrangement. We don’t have an affect on that. As we go forward towards a full set of negotiations, even ourselves as the GNWT, we’re going to have to look at our resources available and come up with a formula as to how we would progress forward and see if the federal government would be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The agreement-in-principle allows for groups to sign on at any time during the process, once they feel comfortable and they feel that they understand it more, if that’s a concern they have. In some cases, some groups may choose not to be there. It is a choice that they will need to make.

We will, as the agreement-in-principle states, allowed for every opportunity right through up until the final negotiations have been reached in the sense of initialling a final agreement for decision. The groups that would be a part of that can influence it.

That’s why I say come back to...

The work that was done by the anti-poverty group had a preliminary focus. Yes, the government was involved in the workshop at our request, but, quite simply, the fact that as the GNWT a number of departments... And yes, the reason that we include Executive, Health and Social Services, Education, Culture and Employment, ITI and Justice as part of the review of this is to knock those silos down and we have to look at the way that we’ve delivered those programs and come back and correlate that with the work that was done by the NGOs and come out with recommendations that would fit at that point...

Well, yes, quite simply, Mr. Speaker, the issue comes when in past experience within the Government of the Northwest Territories when we have a large working group together to look at the issues within the North and there are a number of issues that we have examples of, this is one of those, the Anti-Poverty Strategy. The work they’ve done is good. It was good to get the information together from those that help deliver and deal with those issues on their own. We also, as a Government of the Northwest Territories, deal with those issues and we can’t forget that as well, and we need to collect...

The work that has to occur, as the Member has just raised, will need to happen as we begin our negotiations and establish those mandates. We haven’t even started that work as the GNWT. We’ve started to look at the team we need to put forward and preparing a work plan and a schedule to that work plan, and that’s where we’re wanting to get the Aboriginal groups back to the table at the earliest opportunity so they can help in some of that work and put their concerns on the table as well. That work would happen as we begin to set those mandates and we go forward. I see that as work to be done as...