Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will consult with the aboriginal leaders who signed on to make sure they don’t have any difficulty with the agreement we signed with them. But the details of our negotiations involving the federal government, we would not want to make that public except in a very general sense until those negotiations are completed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First let me clarify, we don’t have any dollars yet. What we have is a framework that sets out some of the guidelines to how the money will be spent. Assuming that there are no difficulties with the framework, then I would think that this will move fairly quickly. The federal government will be getting back to business soon from their summer recess. So I expect early this fall, but we have no way of knowing how fast they will work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Until l see the clarification on the roles, I will not make assumptions about who has what responsibility. Mr. Speaker, I am told that Minister Prentice, for example, is the lead Minister for the pipeline. That pipeline is in the North, so I don’t know what else may be in terms of division of responsibilities between these two Ministers, so I can’t make assumptions. But we will continue to work hard on trying to achieve an agreement-in-principle in the meantime. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the best of my knowledge in a negotiation and in any discussions, the fact that only four out of seven aboriginal organizations have signed on has never been an issue with the federal government. They have not raised that at all. They are satisfied with the four that we have been working with us. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome all Members back for this last session of the 15th Legislative Assembly. I know that it has been a busy summer for everyone in your constituencies and attending the various annual assemblies.

Given this is the last session of the 15th Legislative Assembly and, therefore, my last sessional statement as Premier, I want to take this opportunity to formally announce my own intentions regarding the impending election. After talking it over with my wife, Theresa, and my family, I have decided it is time to seek new ways to serve the people of this territory and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know if I will have a chance to do it today…

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…but, Mr. Speaker, I will and we have committed to consulting with the Akaitcho and letting them know what we are doing in terms of the enforcement procedures. Hopefully we will have cooperation there.

Mr. Speaker, I also hope that DIAND will also follow a similar process as we are on their land because, Members know, we can only develop procedures and apply our legislation on Commissioner’s land. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was referring to trying to work with the Akaitcho negotiators, Akaitcho people, at the negotiation table. We tried that in 2004. It didn’t go anywhere. So, Mr. Speaker, I am certainly open to having our negotiator consider raising this again when there is next a meeting at the table.

Mr. Speaker, beyond that, what we are prepared to do right now is put out enforcement procedures that we have worked out, give people warnings and give people notice that they have to show us that they have the right to be occupying the land they have. If they don’t, then they are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been discussions. The Metis have told us they are meeting on the 24th, which is a week from today. They will give us that assurance.

Mr. Speaker, what we are trying to avoid is a situation we see in some communities where we have a seniors complex, it’s only for seniors, and then we have empty units and then people looking for housing and they can’t move into it because it’s a seniors complex. We want to say let’s be sensible about this, let’s build it as a seniors unit, but if there are other people, make sure they can move in there too with priority given...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This project has not been put on the back burner. Mr. Speaker, it changed from some singles housing and some housing for families to a six-plex for seniors at the request of the seniors.

What that does, Mr. Speaker, because of the limited amount of housing, is it does limit the options for single people and for families and has housing dedicated for seniors. We asked the seniors whether in the event there weren’t enough seniors to occupy all of the new six-plex units at some point in the future, would they make the units then available to other singles or couples based...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be very brief.

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First of all, let me say that Cabinet will not be voting on this motion because it is a recommendation to us. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make a couple of points. Due diligence and transparency, those are things we live by. Due diligence is here and that is why we have the financial situation we enjoy right now that enables us to do this kind of project, is because we have done due diligence over the life of our government.

Mr. Speaker, transparency, yes, we have already committed and we will commit to giving the committee the best...