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.
