Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, in the position put forward by other governments and put forward by all the Ministers and the Premier when we meet with the federal Ministers, there is the issue of board appointments. There is the issue of land use frameworks. There is the issue of clarification and fixing up of the current process and adequately funding the system that is now in place, which is still a relatively young system. There is a package that we put forward that we think will help us move on regulatory reform that won’t require any legislative change. It won’t require the reopening of land claims. It...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of board appointments ties clearly into the issue of regulatory reform and the challenge… There are two pieces, the challenge of making sure our appointments are up to date and then through the existing process, and we have a system in place to track that and we use lead time to consult the appropriate parties. But the bigger issue is the consistent demand we have made and are continuing to make to the federal government, that simple regulatory reform can start immediately by giving the Northwest Territories government the authority to make the board...

I understand on September 8th, Inuvik Mayor Derek Lindsay invited the Gwich’in Tribal Council and Nihtat Gwich’in Council to participate in the stakeholder committee. It doesn’t tell me whether they agreed to do that or not, but I will commit to make sure that there has been a proper flow of information on all the stakeholder groups. The aboriginal governments are fully privy to the work that’s underway. Thank you.

My understanding is that all the affected stakeholders, property owners, were invited to sit on this stakeholders committee to oversee the work, to look at what the issues were and look at the work plan that was being laid out and agreed to. Thank you.

Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; Paul Guy, acting deputy minister of Public Works and Services.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that Bill 2, Forgiveness of Debts Act, 2009-2010, be read for the first time. Thank you.

You already see evidence of it. For example, if I can point to our science agenda where there is a clear recognition, the Water Strategy that we are going to be tabling. We will have a very clear central role for traditional knowledge. Environment and Natural Resources already has it in play. The work that we are doing with all the communities and all the co-management boards on caribou, for example. There is an extensive curriculum in the schools already that exists, and other departments that don’t have a major role in this are also doing that as a normal course of their business are going...

The Member has raised the issue in this House and, as a suggestion, I believe there is opportunity for us to collaborate on this. The issue is going to be just to arrange the time. If there is an interest signified to us that the Social Programs committee wants to have a thorough discussion on this, then we would be happy to comply with that request and just work on the scheduling, which is a challenge in the normal course of events. But I think if there’s an interest, we have about 18 months, by my estimation, of time left where we could actually do substantive work. So we don’t have a lot of...

Yes, there will be collaboration. I appreciate the good advice from the Member. There will be collaboration amongst the departments to make sure we have a coordinated approach as we deal with the needs of the communities as well as trying to factor in the effect on specific communities of climate change issues such as shoreline erosion. Thank you.