Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about evolution before devolution and I think that these two go hand in hand. It’s actually being forced by the signing of the agreement-in-principle as we move forward.
I have questions for the Premier. As we move along with the talks towards the devolution final agreement and there’s resistant Aboriginal groups out there only because there’s lots of information and there’s lots of uncertainty and fear about what it really means to sign on to the AIP, are there other solutions out there that can still involve the Aboriginal governments working with the GNWT as we work towards devolution?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The agreement-in-principle allows for groups to sign on at any time during the process, once they feel comfortable and they feel that they understand it more, if that’s a concern they have. In some cases, some groups may choose not to be there. It is a choice that they will need to make.
We will, as the agreement-in-principle states, allowed for every opportunity right through up until the final negotiations have been reached in the sense of initialling a final agreement for decision. The groups that would be a part of that can influence it.
That’s why I say come back to the table early. I say come back, because even the groups that said they were observers influenced the agreement-in-principle as it’s been designed. At the same time, to access the funding that’s there to help and the work that they need to do, by signing the agreement the same as we have done allows us to tap into some additional resources to help us in the preparation of that work.
I think that the future development of the Northwest Territories does include having the GNWT and Aboriginal governments having a dialogue. Once again, is there a solution or another alternative that we can involve Aboriginal groups in discussion as we work towards a final devolution agreement without them actually signing on? Can they be observers, like the Premier said, or is there another mechanism to allow full involvement? I really believe that as we work towards devolution, we’re also talking about evolution of our political development of the Northwest Territories. All must be involved.
The process we’ve engaged in has been inclusive and open to quite a number of avenues in the work and up into the agreement-in-principle that was signed. That included groups that would officially call themselves observers but had representatives that influenced some of the discussion and the way the language was written.
As we go forward, though, towards a final set of negotiations, as there will need to be bilateral discussions, so formal discussions on, for example, the jurisdiction sharing about how we share our arrangements, how co-management bodies can work together, for example, or the resource revenue sharing section, they’ll need to sign up to this to be able to move forward on this because that will require bilateral discussions, Aboriginal governments to the GNWT, in some of the specific areas.
So I would say that we’ve been very flexible to this point, and as we go forward the groups need to look at what it is that we’re asking them to do and look at the language that’s been in place with the advice of many of the regions, observers as well as official groups at the table, that speak directly to the participation and safeties built into this document when it comes to protecting Aboriginal rights established as well as interim measures on the negotiations that are ongoing.
Some of the alternate solutions, of course, without Aboriginal groups actually signing on, is some of the funding that’s available to hold in trust their portion thereof of whatever percentage of their group. Is that something the Premier can look at?
I know the funding that we’ve discussed, the portion for the GNWT and the portion for the Aboriginal governments through this agreement-in-principle signing, by signing on you get access to that. The portion for Aboriginal governments, they need to sit down with the federal government and work out that arrangement. We don’t have an affect on that. As we go forward towards a full set of negotiations, even ourselves as the GNWT, we’re going to have to look at our resources available and come up with a formula as to how we would progress forward and see if the federal government would be interested in that process.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Just in terms of timing -- I think the Premier just mentioned it earlier -- what kind of timing do the Aboriginal groups have to review and acknowledge and perhaps even sign on should they wish to? What is the timing of that? Is it end of April? Is it this summer? Is it this fall?
There is no deadline to signing on to the agreement-in-principle. Of course, I would say the earlier the groups sign on and get access to the revenue source to help them in the preparation work, the more influence on mandates that are being established and positions that would be looked at and influencing the final decision as we look to going forward. Especially those that are bilateral, we need those groups who would agree to sign on. There is no timeline in the sense of deadlines that groups need to sign on.
What I would caution, though, is anybody coming in at the 11th hour when we’re about to initial a framework agreement or final agreement. For example, most of the decisions will be made by the parties that were there, and probably the revenues used up by the majority of groups by the latter stages. Signing up early allows access early to dollars as well as influencing final outcomes.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
