Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a follow-up question to my statement this morning in terms of congratulating the leaders of the various communities that were elected to local governments. I just wanted to follow up in terms of where this government might be going in trying to build a relationship with First Nations. My question is directed to the Premier, whether the Premier would more likely consider perhaps continuing on at least the principle of our working relationship with First Nations by perhaps considering this Northern Leadership Forum that was undertaken in the last Assembly. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are committed to reaching out to Aboriginal governments to develop a working relationship or a better working relationship, and right now we are following up to the Detah meeting and have had a number of meetings and phone calls with all of the Aboriginal government leaders. We’re also following up, trying to do bilateral meetings with each of the Aboriginal governments in order to have a follow-up meeting.
As a government we’re developing what we’re calling an Aboriginal Government Engagement Strategy and as part of that we’ll decide whether we’ll continue the Northern Leaders Forum process that was introduced in the 16th Assembly and we expect to be making a decision on those things early in the new year. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for giving us an update in terms of where things are at in government relations with First Nations. Another major question related to this initiative is to understand that First Nations issues have figured prominently in the courts in Canada and one of them is in northern Ontario. Recently the Prime Minister had committed to First Nations that there will be a meeting with the Prime Minister and First Nations leaders sometime in January. I want to know if the Premier would be involved with that and perhaps what role the GNWT will play.
Right now, as I understand, it’s primarily between the Prime Minister and the Assembly of First Nations and their leadership. I’m not sure exactly how the meeting will be structured. I have written to the Prime Minister in follow-up to our phone call requesting a meeting with him. I’m also planning and we’re trying to set up a phone call with Minister Duncan. I have been texting with the grand chief of the Dene Nation who has been involved in the discussions along with the grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations to see how we can work together. So we expect to be meeting with him sometime before Christmas. So I expect that we’ll have a fairly good idea of what role we can play within the next week or so. Thank you.
The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
