Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, I met with every single regional leader in the same room several times. The most recent time was in Norman Wells in about April. At that time, in fact, I met with the leaders and with Minister Prentice in the room as well. Mr. Speaker, we have had several of those meetings. In terms of all of the leaders, chiefs, mayors and everybody we tried; we never got everybody together, but regional leadership, yes. We have met with them several times. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have said we’re close, we’re moving in the right direction on several occasions. Mr. Speaker, during the past three years of our government’s life we’ve had to go through two federal elections, a number of band elections and so on. But the federal elections in particular tend to throw us off schedule. So we’ve had two of them and we may in fact have a third one before our government has completed its agenda. So those certainly slow us down.

Mr. Speaker, I think we’re closer.

---Laughter

I can tell you right now that the Prime Minister, this Prime Minister, has...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know which one is the main one, but I tell you, us not working together is one for sure. We need to work together. You put your finger on that one today. A second one is a real infrequence by the bureaucracy in Ottawa who just don’t get it. They want to treat us as if we are a colony out there. Mr. Speaker, I think those are the two main things that are stopping us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I think the first essential piece we need is for all northern leaders to work together on this and recognize this as being the most important topic we can deal with. Mr. Speaker, there is a meeting of the Aboriginal Summit leaders on November 9th and that is a critical meeting. Following that I intend to, I hope the leaders are able to come to agreement on what their agenda is, who the membership is, and so on. Then I intend to meet with them and I’ve made that known to the leaders already.

Second, Mr. Speaker, with aboriginal leaders it’s not all the aboriginal leaders who see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People who lived in this land before government came along were very self-reliant. They had no choice. Sometimes things were tough. Sometimes there was an abundance of what people needed. Government came and people became very dependent on the generosity of a government, whether it was a federal or territorial government, far too much. I believe every person in the Northwest Territories wants to regain that self-reliance, pride, that self-esteem that comes with it.

Mr. Speaker, our young people have gone to school on the promise that there would be jobs, that there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Minister Prentice has made very strong statements of support for the Northwest Territories. He has visited the Northwest Territories three times in the last eight months, more than any other Minister has in that short period of time. Mr. Speaker, rather than inviting a senior bureaucrat to join us, I would invite an elected leader. I would invite Minister Prentice to come here and sit down with us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me say I appreciate the statements by all of the Members on this most important topic and I appreciate the concern you express and I express the same kind of concern. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that I have spent more time on this issue with the federal government and with aboriginal leaders than any other issue. I feel it is the most important issue we, as a government, have to deal with. Now, I can’t give assurance we’ll achieve a deal. I don’t know. But, Mr. Speaker, I’m going to do everything in my power to get us there if I can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, for the Member's information, Peter Lougheed, former Premier of Alberta, has and continues to work with us on a number of files, primarily on the hydro file but he's also worked with us in other areas in terms of relationship with the federal government, and I'll continue with him.

In terms of other people, if there's suggestions, I'd like to consider this further. But definitely, if there is somebody out there who can help us move this ahead in a big way, then, yes, I'm in favour of making an investment in that person's time and reputation. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had those discussions with not all the leaders, but some of the leaders. They have asked that I wait until they have a meeting of the leaders of the summit, which is scheduled for November 9th. I told them I would. At that meeting they want to iron out some issues amongst themselves first. But if, for some reason, that isn’t ironed out, then I think we have to call a meeting in any case. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly on these files I don't do it all myself. We've got a very competent negotiator who is experienced and is continuing to work for us. We've stayed with the same negotiator. He's there.

Mr. Speaker, as we need, we do hire consultant help. Again, we're careful but we would sooner pay to have a consultant give us expert advice on a particular area than take our chances on trying to just estimate it ourselves.

Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, of course, we have the backup of departments like our Department of Finance, we have our Ottawa office, we have our own...