Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to start off this session with a good news story. Mr. Speaker, this year the hamlet of Aklavik is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
---Applause
Mr. Speaker, this is a great accomplishment, considering 100 years ago the Hudson Bay Company made a decision to establish a trading post in a location where Aklavik is today, which was built by the late Alexander Stewart.
Mr. Speaker, Aklavik has a great history. Becoming a trading post, a commerce for people in regards to the fur trade back in the early 1900s and then working its way to becoming a major regional centre for commerce from governments, programs and services by way of regional hospitals, education facilities for schools, and also the military played a major role in regards to the early centre, which was established in Aklavik.
Mr. Speaker, it was the main centre of government for the people in the Beaufort-Delta and also played a major role as a regional centre.
Mr. Speaker, Aklavik has a rich history of families that live there, and continue to live there today, and a place where the Mad Trapper remains.
More importantly, Mr. Speaker, the community has had a slogan for 50 years, when a decision was made by some bureaucrat in Ottawa to move the community of Aklavik to East Three, which is known today as Inuvik and celebrated its 50th anniversary a year ago. Again, they’re missing out on the big celebration, which is 100 years, which is Aklavik’s celebration and takes place this year.
Mr. Speaker, the people of Aklavik invite all residents of the Northwest Territories and elsewhere to celebrate with them. Over this year they are having carnivals, dances, bonspiels, the famous Pokiak Music Festival, consideration of the Northern Games taking place in Aklavik this year, the Gwich’in Assembly and also hosting canoe races, dog races and many special events over the year.
Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to send an invitation to all the residents of the Northwest Territories to mark on their calendar that they will make an attempt to celebrate with the people of Aklavik.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to send an invitation to all the residents of the Northwest Territories to mark on their calendar that they will make an attempt to visit the community of Aklavik and celebrate with them on their 100th anniversary; more importantly, to take the time to realize a part of the Northwest Territories which most people have never been to or have never had the opportunity. Mr. Speaker, the opportunity is now. Celebrate the 100th anniversary with the people of Aklavik. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Lena Pedersen, a former Member of the Legislature and a constituent of the Great Slave riding.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize our two interns who are here in the gallery from the Department of Justice. Mr. Blake Buckle and Emily Ingarfield are here with us. Welcome. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s my honour to recognize the parents, or at least the mother, of my esteemed colleague Mr. Abernethy, the wonderful Loretta Abernethy, a constituent of Weledeh. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
…the Gameti Land Corporation president, Mr. Peter Menacho from Deline.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Mr. Larry Elkin and his wife, Cappy. Mr. Elkin is a very long-time deputy minister with the Government of the Northwest Territories. He commented to me the other day that he had a letter of thanks from 40 years ago for intervening at the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline hearing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the Elkin family, Cappy and Larry. I know they watch our Assembly quite regularly on television, as well as follow our proceedings quite closely through the community. I suspect that they are not here just to watch us. Their granddaughter, who also is a Yellowknife Centre constituent, Paige Elkin is here to help us today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to have an audience here, especially when we are starting out in a new session.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The Gwich’in Assembly passed a motion last year directing the Gwich’in Tribal Council to make an elders payout for elders over the age of 70 and then also they made a second payment to elders 60 and over to age 69. Mr. Speaker, under the Gwich’in Land Claim Agreement it is pretty clear in regards to these payments not being clawed back by governments, regardless if it is the federal government or the Government of the Northwest Territories. But it is pretty apparent, Mr. Speaker, that those elders, especially the ones 60 and over who depend on income support have had their payments clawed back.
Mr. Speaker, there is a letter written to the Premier and the Minister of Health and Social Services and also a letter to the Department of Education on this matter. I would like to ask the Minister exactly why is it that this government clawed back the elders’ payment to the Gwich’in elders in regards to their portion of income, which was somewhere around $2,600, but again those people weren’t allowed any income support payments or support for the whole month of December because of these payments which they were left without. I would just like to ask: why is the government doing that, knowing that it is an exemption in the agreement?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The clawback has been addressed the last several years now, so we made some changes to our existing programming, the policy that we have in place. After numerous discussions that we had in the Legislative Assembly, the standing committee and the general public, we decided that there was an exemption that was put on the table, a $1,200 exemption on individuals that can qualify. The $3,500 that the Member is referring to, there have been payouts by the organization in the Beaufort-Delta, but we are currently looking into that specific area through the initial justice system to find out what is in the agreement. They are tax exempt as if from land claims money as if from a business arm, so those are the discussions that we are having currently ongoing. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Under the Gwich’in Land Claim Agreement under Chapter 11, which is the taxation chapter, it clearly states that the Gwich’in Settlement Corporation is exempt from any federal, territorial or local government taxes and similar charges are exempt from the settlement corporation and such. Any capital distribution to elders over the age of 60 years are, therefore, exempt from taxes and other charges, including clawbacks of their income support. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, knowing that that provision falls under the land claim agreement under section 11, which legislation is the government considering in light of this land claim provision, which clearly stipulates that no exemptions would be taken on those type of payments.
Mahsi. Those are the detailed information that we need to address within our Department of ECE, the Department of Justice and the organization itself. When we talk about chapters, there are different chapters where the funding has been allocated. So, certainly, those are areas that we need to look at. The detail of are they tax exempt and if they are what can we do as a department on a going forward basis, we’ve been having this discussion just since the issuance of the $3,500 has been dispersed. So we are in the process of going forward and talking to organizations. Mahsi.
Thank you. I hope that the department and the Minister’s department can try to bring a quick resolution to this, because the seniors, the reason that they did this is because we are losing a lot of seniors and we’re hoping that we can get this money into their hands so that they can at least have an opportunity to spend it and use it to their expense and not have it clawed back. So I’d like to ask the Minister if he can give me some assurance that they will try to remedy this situation as soon as possible. Thank you.
Mahsi. That is what we are currently discussing to look further into the actual agreement itself and our policy. We need to resolve this issue, because it doesn’t only impact in that area but also other land claim settlement areas as well. So we’re being cautious of moving forward. So, certainly, that information will certainly be shared with the standing committee as we move forward. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hopefully we are able to compensate those individuals who were basically affected by this by way of not allowing them. So I’d just like to ask the Minister if he could somehow work with the Gwich’in Tribal Council and those elders that are affected by the clawback and see if we can work with them to notify them that there is a possibility of being reimbursed for those loses by way of the clawback. Thank you.
Mahsi. We all depend on the agreement that we have in place, whether it be with the Gwich’in, the Beaufort-Delta, within our GNWT system. So, yes, we are going to continue having those types of discussions and we want to expedite the process so we can come out with a solution. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement. The Dene Nation Leadership Meeting was held last week in Fort Simpson and government was informed. It was easy to guess and see that the temporary ban on hunting of the Bathurst caribou herd would be discussed. In any event, our government has always committed itself to give value to our aboriginal organizations and government. There was attendance by senior staff of ENR, which was some comfort, but none from Cabinet. If anything, the Premier, who is also the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Speaker, and there were no officials from that department either. The Dene National Assembly, they said...[English not provided]...they want to see the boss, Mr. Speaker, or else...[English not provided]...the big boss, which is the Premier.
Mr. Speaker, can the Premier tell this House why wasn’t he or the Minister of ENR or any other Ministers in attendance at the Dene Nation Leadership Meeting? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The situation that has occurred there, one is it’s unfortunate in the sense that we were not able to have Ministers in attendance, but we need to set some of the facts straight in what led up to this.
Mr. Speaker, number one, not all Ministers attended the Gwich’in leaders and the Beaufort-Delta leaders meetings. Both Minister Bob McLeod and Minister Michael Miltenberger were not at those meetings. Two, the request for attendance at those meetings and the request to make presentations on departmental responsibilities were made months in advance so that we could set the time aside for those meetings. For the notice to the Cabinet Ministers of the Dene Assembly, the meetings that were occurring, we can provide Members notice that a notice was received by a number of the Ministers on January 13th and responded to in the case of, for example, Minister Michael McLeod responded two days after the fact to the organization. Minister Lafferty, the same thing, within a few days responded to the Dene leadership about the invitation. Upon receiving the agenda it was clearly noted that the issues and the requests for ministerial presentations were not on the agenda, and by that time Ministers were well committed to quite a number of meetings beforehand.
In speaking to the Dene national chief, Mr. Bill Erasmus, I confirmed with him that we were prepared to sit down with him and the folks that he would want to on the issues arising from that meeting. As the Members know in this House, we as the Government of the Northwest Territories have stepped up our involvement and meetings with the regional aboriginal leaders and governments to build on a solid relationship. We’re prepared to sit down, given enough advance notice, to set time aside to make the appropriate presentations to aboriginal governments as well. Thank you.
Thank you very much. But the fact remains that no Ministers were in attendance, and for me personally it kind of gauges the importance that our Cabinet gives the Dene National Assembly. So I’m just not clear. I know that we make time for other aboriginal organizations, even cancelling meetings and having an excuse that they need months of planning, it’s just not appropriate there, Mr. Speaker.
Once again, given the importance of the matters being discussed at the Dene National Leadership in Fort Simpson, I don’t know why there was only one department that sent officials. We’ve got to pay more attention to the Dene National Assembly and that’s the frustration that I felt, that’s a frustration the people felt in Fort Simpson. Once again I’d like to ask the Minister why wasn’t more attention by this Cabinet given to the Dene National Leadership Meeting in Fort Simpson.
Thank you. In preparing for whether it’s meetings with aboriginal governments, with provincial governments, with the federal government, there is much advanced time in trying to allocate time and resources and meeting times of Ministers with the appropriate parties. So we are always prepared to sit down and set that time aside, with enough advance notice and that’s the concern here. The notice, the invitations that were given to Ministers, came in in mid-January, a week before the meetings. The commitment was already made by Ministers at other meetings and events, whether it was in this Territory or within the capital or in other parts of the country as well. When you do look at the agenda that was provided to Ministers at that time, the issue of having Ministers make presentations was not on the agenda as well.
As I said before, we’re committed to working with our aboriginal partners across the Territory, and with advance timing and notice we are glad to make the time available so that we can sit down together and hear what’s being raised, as well as make the presentations from the department responsibilities as well. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I still don’t believe that timing is the issue, but I think the issue for myself and the people at the Dene National Leadership Meeting in Fort Simpson was government’s inattention to the needs and the issues that were on the floor. The other thing, too, is how much time does government spend paying attention to other aboriginal organizations, which is an issue as well. I believe that we’re a consensus style government and that we must pay attention to all aboriginal organizations and governments, and that’s the question I’d like to ask the Premier. How much time do they spend with all our aboriginal organizations? I’d like to see it equally balanced.
The fact that we meet regularly, we’ve had seven regional leaders meetings with the grand chiefs and presidents of the aboriginal governments across this Territory. We just held our seventh meeting in November, in Dettah. In fact, the executive reports that were given at the Dene Leadership Meeting by these grand chiefs and presidents, they were in attendance at our regional leaders meeting. In fact, at our regional leaders' meeting we also had some discussion about the issue of caribou conservation. In fact, I believe our press release may even have touched on that topic. The fact that before this meeting there were numerous meetings held with aboriginal governments and organizations about the issue of conservation of caribou across the Northwest Territories, working with co-management boards.
So the simple fact is we continue to meet with the regional leadership, with aboriginal governments and organizations, and we’ll continue to do that. We’ll work jointly on initiatives, given that we’re provided enough time so that we could make sure that we marshal up the resources to be in attendance.
Thank you, Premier Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
I’d just like to reiterate the point one more time is that when aboriginal groups meet, they want to see the...[English not provided]...they want to see the boss, the Ministers, and I’d like to get the Premier’s commitment that they will evaluate the next Dene Nation Leadership Meeting or any aboriginal leadership meeting and give them that importance and that value and that respect.
We are prepared, as I said, and continue to work with our aboriginal partners across the Northwest Territories and will set the time aside to sit down with them. In fact, we’re working on the next Regional Leaders Meeting to be at the end of March. We’ll continue to work with them. For example, those that made the presentations from the executive reports at that Dene Leadership Meeting, we’re hoping to have all of them in attendance, including Mr. Bill Erasmus, national chief of the Dene Nation.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to just follow up with Mr. Menicoche’s questions in terms of the leadership meeting in Fort Simpson with the Dene Nation national chiefs. Listening from the communities, the reception, what I’m hearing is that it wasn’t very good to have our government Ministers not there at a very important meeting with the leadership. It didn’t seem that this government here cared to sit down with the chiefs, to listen to them, especially on the issue of caribou. It was quite volatile. I want to ask the Premier, the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, in terms of leadership meetings such as the Dene Nation Leadership Meeting, is there a policy that at these type of meetings that you’ll have several Ministers at these meetings to listen to the chiefs on some of these important issues.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process we have in place for meetings with aboriginal governments and leaders is, one, first and foremost, that is really formally structured now. The regional aboriginal leadership meetings are attended by the seven regions and the grand chiefs and presidents of those aboriginal governments. As well, when advance time is given and we’re requested to be on the agenda, we would have the appropriate Minister -- if they can’t be in attendance, the appropriate deputy minister -- to present what has been requested. In the case, for example, of the Beaufort-Delta regional leaders, the practice has been months in advance they make the request that we be in attendance. They actually request the Ministers and put them on the agenda to make presentations at the meeting. We do that with the Gwich’in leaders. At the regional leaders table we, as well, have a joint initiative where the regional leaders can put items on the agenda, along with ourselves, and we have the appropriate Ministers show up at those. We continue to work with those. Along the side the regional leaders’ meetings, we’ve made a commitment as the Government of the Northwest Territories that we will have a bilateral with the grand chief and the chiefs of a region on an annual basis as well. So when they make that request, we set up to do that.
When you have over 30 chiefs sitting there, these are the level of aboriginal governments that are going to be established in the Northwest Territories. We’re asking another government to participate. I’m asking the Minister or the Premier in terms of is it something that is going to be a policy where when you have 30 chiefs sitting down, that the Premier or the Cabinet would send one or two Ministers to be there out of courtesy to sit with another level of government.
We have a process in place now that we meet with the regional leadership and have a bilateral process. In fact, as I just said earlier, we just finished a meeting with regional leaders in November and we’re already into planning preparations for the end of March with the regional leaders. So it takes a long time to get the agendas together, to get the necessary information together, so that we can have these meetings. We will do the same in advance notice of the Dene Leadership Meetings. There are many examples where we have Ministers and myself who have been to the leadership meetings to make presentations as well. It’s just unfortunate that the notice came late and we already had commitments by the Ministers that had invitations. When you look at the agenda, there was no request, we were not on the agenda as Ministers making presentations.
When you have 30 leaders, 30 chiefs sitting down, it’s just obvious that this government should send one or two Ministers to a meeting out of courtesy to listen to the chiefs. Sometimes we don’t go by an agenda. Sometimes the issues come outside the agenda. It’s just obvious that this government, as leaders, attend a national territorial leadership meeting. Again, I want to ask the Premier in terms of not a process, but is there some type of policy that in the future that Ministers would be attending the Dene national chiefs meeting.
We make every effort to attend the aboriginal leadership meetings across the Northwest Territories. We can provide the information of how many meetings we have attended. It is important that we work together on that basis. That is why, for example, we’re trying to solidify an ongoing relationship that is put in place and recognized at the regional leaders’ table. For example, the last meeting we tabled -- the example is the Council of the Federation -- that with the regional leaders. We hope to build on that going forward.
