Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I made a statement on devolution. I wanted to ask the Premier a question in terms of the status of groups that haven’t signed on to the AIP, including the Dehcho, the Akaitcho, and also the Tlicho regions that haven’t signed on. I wanted to know what the status is of the engagement process for those regions.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re days away from having a devolution deal. I’ve written to all three of the Aboriginal governments. In order, I’ve written to the Dehcho First Nation a couple of weeks ago. Actually, I met with the grand chief at lunchtime today. We’ve agreed to a bilateral process to try to resolve outstanding land issues with the Dehcho First Nations, with the objective of getting the agreement for the Dehcho First Nations to sign on to devolution. We’ve had a number of meetings with the Tlicho and a similar offer has been made, inviting the Tlicho to sign on to devolution as well. They have responded with an offer. We are trying to set up a meeting for this week to try to finalize the arrangements. We also have written to the Akaitcho First Nations, and we have been trying to organize a leadership meeting to identify the issues that we need to discuss with the Akaitcho.
I wanted to ask the Premier what provisions is the government making to protect the interests of First Nations in the devolution process, given that most NWT First Nations do not have self-government agreements and most in the southern NWT do not have lands and resource agreements.
In our view, and the legal advice that we’ve been given, and with all of the non-abrogation clauses that we have concluded in the Devolution Agreement, we don’t feel that devolution will negatively impact on either negotiation of land claims or of self-government. Those negotiations will continue and there should be no negative impacts on those processes.
Perhaps this question will help in terms of bringing to light some of the positive impacts of devolution. What is the government’s target for the number of jobs transferred to the GNWT as a result of devolution? Positions that will be located outside of Yellowknife.
We have identified decentralization as a priority for this government. There are approximately 350 jobs that will be involved with devolution. Approximately 175 of those jobs are already located in the Northwest Territories. We expect approximately 175 or so jobs will be moved to the Northwest Territories. As part of the devolution negotiations, the Aboriginal partners that have signed on have clearly indicated that locating jobs to their regions where they come from will also be a very important consideration. As soon as we finalize our organizational design, and we’ve already identified the principles for decentralization, then we will identify where those jobs will go.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question is: What scope is there for changes to the resource revenue sharing regime now and after a final agreement is reached?
We’re very close to finalizing a resource revenue sharing agreement between ourselves and the Aboriginal government partners that have signed on to the AIP. Once that is concluded, it will be very clear to everybody involved what kind of arrangements we have negotiated.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
