Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier of the House. I want to ask the Premier about a motion that was passed several weeks ago about the caribou issue. We had a motion that gave direction to the government on dealing with the caribou issue. I want to ask the Premier where that motion is at.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The motion was passed about the caribou situation. There are a number of things that are happening. As the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources responded in the previous session, there is work going on with the co-management boards and with the Wek’eezhii board, as well as setting up a process that includes the Yellowknives and NWT Metis in that process coming up as an overall management plan similar to what we’ve done in areas where there are land claims and co-management bodies in place. We’re moving down that process.
In the interim, I know the Minister and his department have tried to sit down and have had a number of meetings with Yellowknives Dene to try to come up with a workable solution on the very specific issue that they’ve had to deal with.
Can the Premier give us an update on where things are with the Yellowknives Dene on how they’re trying to work out a deal on the harvesting?
For that detail, I’ll defer that question to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have put an offer to the Yellowknives. We have also, as I’ve indicated to the Member previously in the last session, had discussions with the Dene Nation about a possible process. Both those cases we are waiting for feedback on to see if we can move ahead as we move into the ninth week of the protection of the Bathurst herd.
I’ll ask the question of putting the offer to the Yellowknives, is there a time frame for this offer being discussed and negotiated to come up with a deal?
We are looking to -- and I’m sure both parties would like to resolve this particular issue -- the deputy minister was going to in fact get back in touch with the Yellowknives, now that the Olympics are over and everybody is back in business, to see what possible next steps might be there in the minds of the Yellowknives.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
I want to ask the Minister or Premier on building relationships with the aboriginal governments on this very important issue. This issue is very critical for us to go forward. I want to ask the Premier about this deal, having it satisfactory to the Yellowknives, to the Tlicho, to the people of the Northwest Territories to go forward on bigger issues with the government. Is the Premier committed to ensuring this deal can get done soon? This week?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In that area of building relationships with aboriginal leaders and groups and governments across the Territory, we continue to do that. We continue to build on that. We’ve had the discussion about caribou at that table and we will continue to have discussion about a process forward in a number of key areas as well. This is one of those areas and we recognize that we need to continue to build and strengthen on that relationship.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
