Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will raise that issue. I am leaving for Ottawa tomorrow morning. I have a meeting on…Sorry; I’m leaving on Saturday morning. Correction. I have a meeting with the Prime Minister, with Minister Blondin-Andrew, Minister Scott and others at 11:00 on Sunday to begin the discussions and I will raise this issue again for sure. Mr. Speaker, I don’t have an up-to-date number on resource revenues that we’re losing right now, but I can tell you that in the 2002-03 public accounts showed that DIAND’s Northern Affairs program collected $38.7 million in mining and oil and gas...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Bill 15, Tlicho Community Services Agency Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill established the Tlicho Community Services Agency, to perform functions related to education, health and social services in Tlicho communities and on Tlicho lands. The agency is required by the Tlicho Intergovernmental Services Agreement made under the Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Agreement.

The agency will be an agent of the Government of the Northwest Territories and will be a public agency listed in...

Mr. Speaker, I also agree that if we’re going to have a northern strategy then we have to have the people who are involved in the northern strategy come to the North and have meetings here, sit down with us as a Caucus and sit down with other northern leaders. I did speak to our MP, the Minister of Northern Development, today and we did have some general discussion about when she might be available to come to the North. I did not ask her specifically about some of the other Ministers, Minister Scott or Minister Efford, but I know that she is working on some agendas and she has told me that as...

Mr. Speaker, I have not heard any regions say with any unanimous voice that they are not ready for the pipeline or for the economic opportunities we have today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I really do appreciate the strong statements that were made here today, the clear statements from the Members. I think that tells me that I do have a good, clear, solid message and solid support from the Members in this House as we go forward to have discussions with the Prime Minister and some of the Ministers in Ottawa. I have had discussions with the aboriginal leaders, as well, and I have to respect their autonomy and their priorities, but I can tell you from a conference call I had a couple of weeks ago that I am confident that the majority of the leaders understand what it...

Mr. Speaker, first of all let me say that when we balance our grants and our own resource revenues, we expect to have what we have always referred to as a net fiscal benefit. We never want to see a dollar for dollar, otherwise why are we doing this. Mr. Speaker, on the other one, on the report, yes, I believe the federal government is not getting the fiscal resources out of our natural resource development. We are not getting what we should and I saw the same report, I know we are getting much, much less than some of the Scandinavian countries, for example. Mr. Speaker, that’s the federal...

Mr. Speaker, as one party to the plan, we have been working hard to stick to the plan and move ahead with it, but I cannot speak for the other two parties on this one, the aboriginal leaders and the federal government. We want to move ahead as quickly as we can on this and will do everything we can. Mr. Speaker, we have to understand that we are not in control of it ourselves. We have two other parties we have to work with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we only have a formal negotiating table for the main devolution agreement. The concept, the idea, the proposal of interim resource revenue sharing is not at a table right now. We continue to negotiate devolution. The next meeting is October 26th to 28th, so we are still talking devolution. Mr. Speaker, I have been discouraged by this slow pace since when the Aboriginal Summit wanted to get a new negotiator. We did. We had an election and change of Ministers of DIAND since then, a change of Ministers of Finance. Things have slowed us down to the point where I am not...

Mr. Speaker, when I go to Ottawa this week, I will definitely raise that with our MP, the Minister of Northern Development. I will also raise it with the Prime Minister and the other federal Ministers that we meet with. Further, I will certainly clarify the unanimous words of support that we heard today from the MLAs. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in my discussions with the aboriginal leaders a few weeks ago, I did propose to them that we need to have representatives from here and aboriginal leaders meet in Ottawa together with some of the key Ministers. I had hoped we would be able to do that by the end of October, but things have slipped. I still hope that we can do it this fall. I am not sure what everybody’s schedules are, but, I agree, we need to be there. We need to be there in enough numbers that the message is clear that we stand together on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.