Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be speaking today on the devolution agreement-in-principle, specifically on the way in which it was signed by the Premier and the INAC Minister. I raised this at the start of this session.
Although the Premier points out that the AIP has been years in the making, from the perspective of the Dehcho leadership, the signing of the AIP was still done too quickly and without adequate consultation. The Dehcho and other Dene leaders feel it is the great big giveaway by the feds and a great big land grab by the GNWT.
Leaderships do not feel that their concerns were heard or acted upon. “With or without you” is the message that the Dene people are getting from the Premier and the INAC Minister. This is not a good message to send when supposedly building partnerships.
As a Regular Member I am frustrated because I am outside the process. I’ve never had the opportunity to vote on the AIP itself or publicly debate it. The Premier needed Cabinet’s approval to sign the AIP but did not need the approval of this Assembly or Regular Members. In fact, this Assembly will not be asked to vote on devolution until implementation legislation comes forward and that will be years from now, when the deal is essentially done.
It is a shame we are not in position today to celebrate together a milestone of transferring powers to the North and to focus our energies on the details of the AIP and our mandates for negotiating the final agreement, because there is a lot in there that we should be paying attention to. Instead, because of the Premier’s and INAC Minister’s actions and high-handedness in dealing with Dene leaders, the debate we have to focus on today is about the process in which the AIP was signed and how we can possibly work together with the broken trust and bad feelings that have been created.
National Chief of the Dene Nation Bill Erasmus said in today’s News/North: “The GNWT and Canada must engage the Dene in a process that promises to build relationships, instead of creating tension and distrust.”
We owe it to all Northerners to work hard in creating a North with all Northerners. There must be a solution other than using the stick-and-carrot approach.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
