Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was something that I always wondered about because there always seemed to be one…Someone is always missing. My colleague from the Sahtu likes to quote a commercial, hands in your pocket. We don’t have pockets. They have the whole pair of pants.

---Laughter

The Premier talks about the bureaucrats. This is not about the bureaucrats. I would like to see the Premier and major leaders go down to Ottawa, meet with the Prime Minister, skip the bureaucrats. We have to start skipping the bureaucrats and relay that message to the Prime Minister that we want to negotiate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Premier for that answer because it is something that I have always been wondering about. I look around this Assembly. We have Inuvialuit in here. We have the Gwich’in. We have the Sahtu. We have the Dehcho, Tlicho, Akaitcho, Metis. We pretty well have everybody covered in here as far as the major claimant groups go. The Premier just heard me name off the major groups as I see them. Has the Premier ever sat in a room leader to leader, government to government with these seven or eight major claimant groups, came up with a strategy and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure if I’m in a position to commit to something of that nature. There are a number of municipalities that have elections coming up on a staggered basis. So I will commit that this is an issue that’s been brought forward by a number of municipalities and also the NWT Association of Communities has this on their radar and it’s something we are in a position where we’re doing the research. We will lay out a number of the different issues, a number of the concerns that are out there, have discussion with the stakeholders. We will try to fast-track this as much as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Local Authorities Elections Act provides for the use of the proxy votes. A number of issues have been brought forward over the last while regarding the Elections Act. We have looked at laying out a process to do a review and we are, right now, in the midst of putting together a discussion paper and we’re expecting that to come out at the end of this calendar year or very early in the new year, and I would expect this would be one of the issues that would be covered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of talk lately and since I have been here about the resource revenues and the devolution talks and it seems to me, Mr. Speaker, like we go in circles. I would like to stand today and issue a challenge. I would like to challenge the leadership of the major regions across the Northwest Territories to come together in one room as leaders, no bureaucrats, no negotiators, no consultants, just the leaders, because they are elected to represent the best interests of the people. I think if we can get our leaders into one room and come up with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to recognize Mr. Tom Williams from Gwich’in Tribal Council, and the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council and strong advocate of trying to get everybody in the NWT on the same page, Mr. Fred Carmichael.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Premier said that he met with all these groups. I was asking if he met with them all at the same time, all seven or eight major leaders, because I have gone to a few leadership summits. There is the Aboriginal Summit, there are some other groups, but it seems to me that there is always someone missing. There is always a group missing. Are all of these groups part of the Aboriginal Summit? Has he met with every single leader in the same room? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know Fred is up there, so I better sound intelligent here.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, we heard talk of resource revenue sharing now for years and years. As I said before, it seems like we are going in circles. I would like to ask Premier Handley what is the single biggest issue that is preventing us from moving this agenda forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The time frame around this whole issue regarding some of the issues that have been brought forward under the Elections Act, these concerns are being researched. The time frame we’re looking at, as I stated earlier, more than likely early in the new year. We don’t anticipate that we’d be in a position to change legislation in the life of this government, but it would be something that we would expect would take place in the new government of the 16th Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to take the opportunity to recognize a youth that preformed at the Dreamcatchers Conference; a youth from Yellowknife who is an upcoming star, in my view, in her music and her positive message: Kiera-Dawn Kolson.

---Applause