Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on my Member’s statement as well. Most particularly, as the MLA that’s in the whole Deh Cho riding, the communities that I went to and speaking with the leadership, they’re concerned about the Dehcho process. They’re not too sure about the implications about the agreement-in-principle. I think one of the questions they asked me is, okay, it sounds like if we’re going to continue with our Dehcho process, now we have to negotiate with the NWT. Can Mr. Premier tell me how the process will continue for the Dehcho process from this point on?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The one thing we’ve made clear in this process with the agreement-in-principle is that we have no interest in taking on the federal fiduciary responsibility in that relationship between the federal government and the Aboriginal governments and First Nations. That remains intact. In fact, with discussions, we know Canada has made the offers to groups that have not settled and that these will not be affected as we go forward.
So again, the language in this AIP is very direct in ensuring that it does not take away from the processes that are underway. As I stated, there is a clause in here that says if the federal government was to make an agreement with an Aboriginal government for a larger piece of ownership than has already been identified, they have the right to come back in and remove some of that Crown land or public land at that point. We have worked hard to try to ensure that the processes that are in place are protected.
I’d like to thank the Premier for that explanation. I believe that people in my riding have been asking me for more explanation for the AIP. I’m not government. I’m not there to explain what Cabinet has done in moving forward with the AIP. They’re asking for a communication strategy. I’ve heard it in the House here earlier on. What exactly is the communication strategy and will it include our government going to the communities and explaining this agreement-in-principle?
As I’d mentioned earlier, there’s a number of things we’re doing with communications. One, first and foremost today, is tabling the signed agreement-in-principle. Secondly, working on the householder, which will go into all homes across the Northwest Territories, a plain language version of the agreement-in-principle. And probably more importantly and sooner to that plain language document, is through the Aboriginal languages be able to speak to the key points of the agreement-in-principle. Also more importantly, I talked about letters to go out hopefully before the end of the day, or as we wrap up here I’ll be up in my office signing those letters to the leaders to look at which way they want to move forward. Is it at a regional basis with the chiefs, all the chiefs of the region, or is it pull all the groups together with their chiefs, or is it to go into communities? We’re open to a number of scenarios that may be available to us.
When I travel to my communities, people are happy to see me in their homes. They don’t like writing. They don’t like e-mails. They prefer sitting down with me eye to eye, discussing the issues that are important to them. This is the same approach they’re taking for something significant as the AIP and devolution for the Northwest Territories. They do want to see the Premier and/or someone from our government in the communities explaining and going through the agreement-in-principle so that they can understand it. Will the Premier commit to including visiting all the communities in that communication strategy?
As I said, we will work with the regional leaders and the chiefs to discuss how we would get through this, besides the householder, besides the radio, reaching out through the radio in Aboriginal languages, and looking at whether it’s us going into regions or sending a team into the communities. If there are invites, we would be prepared to look at that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. From my point of view and the point of view of my communities is that they do want to see the agreement-in-principle devolution team in the communities explaining it to them, sitting at the table. I would once again ask the Premier to include that in the communication strategy, even if they’re going to deal with the regional governments anyway. I believe they must also go to the communities. Can the Premier and his team do that?
As we correspond with the regional leaders and the chiefs in the communities, the elected leadership, we will have that as one of the options. Again, if the regional leaders bring their chiefs and they feel satisfied that’s the approach, we would work with them. If there’s a request to go in, we would take that into serious consideration of being able to go into the communities.
One of the things that we need to do as we prepare to do this, there’s the first version of this is what the AIP is and what it says. Secondly, is our process going forward, and we will need much more time on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
