Joe Handley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's true that the Wildlife Act has been under review for a long time, and we're continuing to work on it. The Minister of RWED is the lead Minister on this and I know it's his intention to complete the draft of the act by the end of this year, as well as the Species at Risk Act. The latest delay has been because of requested consultation by some of the land claim beneficiaries in the various regions of the Territories. We expect to have that done this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will raise it with the Aboriginal Summit when we have the opportunity to have both sides meet at negotiations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In principle, I certainly agree with the notion of setting up a trust fund or a heritage fund or something that ensures that the wealth we have in a particular year or years can benefit future generations. In order to have the ability to contribute to a trust fund, we have to have the dollars to put into it. I hope that within the life of this government that we are there, that we have settled devolution and resource revenue sharing and we are in a position where we can have our NWT trust fund or heritage fund. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like the honourable Member, I was also very pleased with what moved, the attitude, the commitments that were made around the table this morning in the Intergovernmental Forum meeting. I think it was an excellent beginning. I am really pleased that the federal government has now signed on to the framework agreement. I think those are all good things that mean we are making significant progress here.

Mr. Speaker, I intend, as Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, to ensure that we will always be proud to have the Auditor General or anybody else come and look at the steps we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under section 12.1.4 there is a review process that is laid out, and one that I would expect we have been following. As agreed, Mr. Speaker, the government shall meet with the Sahtu Tribal Council not less than once every three years to review the effectiveness of programs relating to the objectives of the economic measures section in the land claim agreement. Those sections relate to both traditional economy as well as to broader economic self-sufficiency. We will continue to honour that obligation. If we don't, then certainly there is a dispute...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to report on progress made in advancing issues of importance to the Northwest Territories at federal/provincial/territorial meetings.

A First Ministers meeting was held on January 30th in Ottawa. I provided the Members of this House with a written summary of that meeting noting that there was general agreement by Premiers and the Prime Minister that the issue of sustainability of our national health system is a priority. The Prime Minister confirmed the $2 billion one-time funding commitment of the previous government to provinces and territories for health care. This...

Mr. Speaker, I would be pleased to provide the Members with a list or a description of the mandate of the Mackenzie Valley planning group in RWED, in terms of the mandate that they have. There may be other areas that we would want to consider as a government for providing further assistance. There are certainly other parts of our government that provide assistance, through Education, MACA and other areas. So there are a lot of services that we provide to those who are interested in economic opportunities, including the pipeline but not limited to the pipeline.

Mr. Speaker, I think the best...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just for further clarification, the three things that I mentioned weren't meant as a comprehensive list of everything we were going to do. I think there are a lot of areas where we assist communities, whether it's in economic development or training, contracting, value-added benefits. There are a whole bunch. I didn't list them all. I was answering the question which was asked specifically with regard to impact benefit agreements and access agreements. Those are things that would flow out of the claims and so on. So those are issues that we have not historically...

Mr. Speaker, that is certainly one consideration I think when we talked about setting joint special committees, the pipeline was one topic that was mentioned earlier on, in the early days of our government. Certainly, I will consider that. I like the idea of a joint committee, and if that's the wish of the Members of this House, then definitely we would give it favourable consideration. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize visitors from Weledeh and particularly Chief Darrell Beaulieu with the Yellowknives First Nation. Thank you.

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