Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, I can’t speak for all the leaders and say that we have this. I believe I have the agreement from all of those with settled claims to get on with getting this resolved and to be able to begin to, as I say, exercise the benefits out of their claims. Those without claims I’m not sure. I’m not sure whether they see this, as I said earlier, the highest priority. But, Mr. Speaker, I want to emphasize, I’m not trying to speak on behalf of all the regional leaders. That’s not my place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT position is that the federal ownership and a share of that oilfield is in lieu of resource royalties. Therefore, the profits they make from that ownership should be subject to the same rules as any other resource revenue sharing arrangement. The federal government is of the view that they should be able to take the profits out of their equity share and not have to pay royalties on it. We don’t agree with that. Mr. Speaker, we are firm on that position. The revenues need to be shared with us as a government as part of the resource revenue sharing deal....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the main thing we do is what we say right here in this House, because people are listening to what we’re saying. I think the Members’ statements today sent a strong message that we are ready and willing to sit down and work with aboriginal leaders.

Mr. Speaker, having said that, we also need to think through how do we do this in a way that those who have settled claims are able to realize the benefits and begin to implement the benefits out of their claim and do that in a way that isn’t somehow going to forfeit or compromise the rights and benefits of those who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will give the Member my commitment that we will be there. We will participate in the workshop. We will share our latest survey results and we will work with the other partners on a management plan with the objective of having an agreed to management plan by all of the partners. Mr. Speaker, we don’t have any particular reason to delay this. We have a lot of concern about the health of that herd and do want to make sure that the management plan we and all the partners come up with is one that takes advantage of the most recent survey information we have. Thank...

Mr. Speaker, we already have unanimous support from all the Premiers around the table. Every one of them without exception has given me that support. I have not asked them to take and make motions in their Legislative Assembly. I’ve not gone that step, but, Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if they’d feel comfortable doing things about another jurisdiction within their jurisdiction. We certainly have statements of support from those who have come here, and many of them have. We will continue to do that.

Mr. Speaker, I want to build those coalitions with them. I want to build it with the aboriginal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to clarify, I don’t go to Ottawa to meet with bureaucrats. I don’t meet with bureaucrats here. They meet with our bureaucrats. I go to Ottawa and meet with the leaders and that is the Prime Minister, the Minister of DIAND or another federal Minister.

Mr. Speaker, just to be clear though, I think it would be very difficult and it may be impossible to have the Prime Minister to agree to meet with me as a political leader without having one of his staff in the room and so on. I think putting in that kind of a request, we probably wouldn’t get the meeting....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to tie a devolution and resource revenue sharing agreement specifically to the pipeline. But what I am going to tie it to is resource development generally. I don’t think the people up and down the Mackenzie Valley should pay the price. We should all, as northerners, be willing to make that sacrifice if it’s necessary in order to get a better deal and it doesn’t matter whether it’s mining in this area or pipeline or whatever, but let’s make it fair to everybody across the Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have several times. I have sat down with all of the leaders and tried to come up with one consensus on agreement. In fact, we have done it through the Circle of Northern Leaders. I think we are the first government to have all of the leaders together, 50 some leaders together around the table, to try to get a consensus. Mr. Speaker, we need everybody to work with us and to recognize and maybe some compromise and so on on everybody’s part to make this work. But we have done it. We have done it on several occasions. I have done it individually. I have done it with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I couldn’t make it to the Dene Assembly meeting in Fort Good Hope last week, but I did meet with the national chief, as I mentioned. I want to build on the mood of partnership and working together that was started at that meeting. As I said, there is a meeting of the Aboriginal Summit leaders on the 9th. Following that I am going to invite, in fact before that happens I will invite all of the leaders to a meeting of the kind that Members referred to here. Just leaders. We don’t need a lot of staff, just ourselves as elected leaders. Mr. Speaker, I hope to do that in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said before, time is of the essence. We need to do this quickly. I want to respect the aboriginal leaders’ request to meet themselves on November 9th first. I want to follow it. I will continue to meet with the national chief, Bill Erasmus, and other leaders. But we need to do this soon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.