Wendy Bisaro

I just have to say that the Premier mentions a whole host of things that are out there, but committee meetings are, I would say, probably 90 to 95 percent closed meetings and there’s no opportunity for public input there.

The Premier mentions consultation. What kind of consultation, and I’m talking about consultation specifically for residents who are not represented by another form of government.

Again to the Premier, is there a mechanism right now that exists so that residents can go to a body other than their MLA, that they can go to a body and they can provide input on a specific issue...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier today. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask him a few questions with regard to the Intergovernmental Agreement on Lands and Resource Management. I recognize that that agreement is between our “public government GNWT and Aboriginal governments.” But, as I mentioned in my statement, there is a need for non-Aboriginal residents to have an opportunity to have some input into lands and resource management in our territory.

My first question to the Premier would be to ask him how does Bill 16, which is the NWT...

They were building houses. Sure. You still have to account for the houses. That’s the background on this motion.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a second motion. I move that, as part of the standard reporting process, the comptroller general include a list of agencies in the consolidated public accounts that did not meet the deadline for completion of their audits.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a bit of a preface, I guess. This was my second opportunity to review the public accounts and each year it adds to the learning, it makes it a little bit easier. I still struggle with some of the accounting language and some of the ins and outs. My colleague mentioned debt and net debt and that’s a difficult concept to get the head around, but I do want to thank the office of the Auditor General; their staff were extremely helpful to us. They’re still teaching us how to deal with the public accounts and we’re learning every time we do them.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find it unbelievable that this government is going to go out and consult on every issue that comes before it. There are any number of decisions that are made by Premier and Cabinet on any number of issues into which residents have no input. There is a need for a formal mechanism for our residents to have an opportunity to have input into lands and resource management.

I’d like to ask the Premier, will he consider establishing some sort of a group similar to the Wildlife Act stakeholder group that was set up to handle input from non-Aboriginal residents, and will he...

To the Premier, thank you, I guess. I recognize that the belief is that the GNWT represents all residents, and I agree that, yes, the GNWT should do that, but there needs to be an avenue for non-Aboriginal residents to have some kind of input, and I think the Premier should know that there are many times when residents feel that there’s a lack of an opportunity for them to provide input into lands and resource management and many other things. The Premier mentions that we have 19 MLAs, and I think he’s suggesting that that’s the avenue that residents should use.

I’d like to ask him is that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened with interest last week as the Minister for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations informed us, in a Minister’s statement, about the signing of a number of agreements. I would like to congratulate the Premier and the government on the progress made and the accomplishment that these agreements represent. It has been a lot of hard work by all parties, not just the government.

The Premier’s statement highlighted the Intergovernmental Agreement on Lands and Resource Management and mentioned that government will be meeting with...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report process.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to just speak to this motion as well. The public accounts include all of our arm’s-length entities. It includes our Crown corporations. It includes our health authorities. It includes our education authorities. There are many, many authorities which complete the consolidated public accounts. We have all the government departments and then we have all the other authorities. Some of those authorities have a fiscal year end which is June 30th, and that makes it rather difficult for the government to get the consolidated public accounts done by August 31st...