Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, the Northern Strategy was an agreement, a document that we were working on with the previous federal government. Mr. Speaker, we're now working with a new government. I've had the initial meeting with the Prime Minister and with the Minister of DIAND, and I expect that they are going to want to put their own vision on how they will work with us on development of the Northwest Territories. So, Mr. Speaker, I think we are going to look at a new arrangement yet to be determined by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The preamble to the question really is when we get devolution, when we get resource revenues, not if. We're past that point, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the next step, once we begin to receive our fair share of resource revenues, is to move ahead on aspects of our strategic plan that we set as a government when we first took office almost three years ago, two-and-a-half years ago. There are pieces on that in people becoming more self-reliant on use to complete infrastructure requests that Members have raised, in fact, today, to move ahead with that quickly.

Mr. Speaker...

Mr. Speaker, I hope to have that kind of discussion on an ongoing basis. I can't predict exactly how fast resource revenue sharing arrangements will be negotiated, or devolution completed and so on. But, Mr. Speaker, I intend in the meantime that we continue to have a lot of open dialogue. We have opportunities; we have the Circle of Northern Leaders meeting coming up in April. I meet regularly with the regional aboriginal leadership. We have the Association of Communities who we meet with at least once a year, probably twice a year on average, or more. We meet with the communities, Mr...

Madam Chair, the committee will be reporting to me as Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have considered the possibilities, but following the changes we are making with regard to social housing, the first step, in our view, is to do a review of the mandate. What should the mandate of this government be through the Housing Corporation for the future of that organization? Once we determine a new mandate, then, Mr. Speaker, as a second step, we could look more specifically at the suggestion the Member has. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to make one correction. There are four powerful Premiers on that committee.

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I take very seriously my responsibility to represent the North. I think it’s very important that the North be on this committee. I hope that I can carry as much influence to the committee’s decisions and recommendations as do the others.

Mr. Speaker, our intention is to table a draft national strategy at the Council of the Federation meeting in July. Assuming that the other Premiers are onside with what we’re recommending, it would then become a document forwarded to the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee will be going out and getting input from all stakeholders in the Territories, including Members of this Legislative Assembly. The work of the committee is to be completed by May 15th. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker, we have agreed to a process for reviewing the mandate within a very specific time frame. The first task, in our view, is to go out, hear what people have to say, what MLAs have to say, what people who work in the housing authorities have to say with regard to the mandate. Following that, Mr. Speaker, then, yes, I'd be willing to take a look at what organization would be most suitable for our changing situation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would certainly be very willing to brief all of the Members of this House as we progress in putting the strategy together. This was our first face-to-face meeting to think through how the strategy would be put together, what would be the elements to it, how it would be structured. I can’t make it public at this point because we would have to have the agreement from all of the Premiers before we’d do that. But I’d be happy to brief Members privately and when it’s agreed that it should go public, I’ll certainly be the first to make it available to everyone. Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had a very good meeting with Premier Williams on Saturday. The meeting was to talk about a national energy strategy. Of course, that includes resource revenues and where they will be allocated. Mr. Speaker, Premier Williams chairs a committee of the Council of the Federation. The other members of that committee are myself, Premier Klein from Alberta, and Premier Charest from Quebec. So what we are doing is working on a national strategy that hopefully would be presented on behalf of all the Council of the Federation Premiers to the Prime Minister and federal...