Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it is.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I suppose that the employees can identify themselves as potential candidates for moving through the system. Again, identifying yourself is one thing. Being capable of doing the work that is assigned to you and moving through the system is another matter, but I don't think that anything stops them from self-identifying. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In discussions with a lot of our Aboriginal partners, we understand their concern with the caribou and the caribou numbers and the work that has gone on with them. I know that we are close to finalizing an agreement with the federal government on section 11 funding, and the plan is that we are hoping that we are in the position to make an announcement during this session. I am sure that Members will be pleased with the announcement when it does come out.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We want to do a thorough job on the work that we do, and we don't have much choice. We can't make a unilateral decision. We have committed to working with our Aboriginal partners on trying to move this forward. Again, credit to our Aboriginal partners; they recognize that this is a serious issue, and they want to move forward as well. I think it is going to carry a lot more weight, and it is going to go a lot further in partnership with the Aboriginal governments.

As far as the boreal caribou, in responding to questions from the Member for Yellowknife North during oral...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The truth is I am not sure where the manual is at. I will commit to the Member that, if there was a commitment that was made to have this brought to the Assembly, then we will find out where it's at and report back to committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is under the management board secretariat, but if the Member wishes, he can ask the questions in this particular area.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We recognize the severity of the declining caribou herd. We heard it throughout our tour of the Tlicho, and we heard it from the Yellowknives, as well. I have instructed the department, as I was responding. I have directed the department to come up with a plan to address a lot of the issues that we have heard about. I think in response to an oral question before, I said that we are looking at trying to have this work done as quickly as possible and have it come forward in the form of a supplemental if need be. On top of the ongoing work that we do as part of our regular...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not going to get into a debate on this. This was raised in September. If the Member missed it, he missed it. There was plenty of time from September to now to find out if this was in there or not and raise the concerns that he had. I am going to find out. There may have been more information off the officials, but it is my understanding. I think the Member wants a big, 12-person, public board to oversee this money. Then we have to start putting money away into the Heritage Fund, and we will determine how we are going to use it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The mandate was to do the research. The research has been done, and they will plan a path forward from there. The commitment has been fulfilled, as the research has been done. Thank you.