Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Much has been said about devolution today, including my Member’s statement on the protection of Aboriginal rights. I’d like to ask the Premier and the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, as well, about devolution and their definition of Aboriginal rights as it applies to the Devolution Agreement. My constituents include the Dehcho First Nations, which has an unsettled claim. Maybe from that perspective to see how their rights will be protected in this devolution deal just for the public’s digestion, as it were.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
In a normal situation, when it comes to treaty and Aboriginal rights, we have a duty to consult just like the Government of Canada does. With regard to devolution, we don’t feel that there is a requirement for us to have duty to consult because it’s our position that devolution does not infringe on treaty or Aboriginal rights. We have a significant amount of non-abrogation clauses that ensure we don’t infringe on Aboriginal treaty rights. To make sure that we are very cautious, to make sure we don’t miss anything, we will be doing our consulting with Aboriginal governments and making sure we adhere to our duty to consult requirement.
I’m sure part of that consultation process will be approaching the Dehcho and Akaitcho First Nations. What does the Premier see in laying out the assurances that devolution won’t abrogate or derogate any Aboriginal rights that they might be negotiating currently at this point?
We are still finalizing our draft communications and engagement plan, and our expectation is we will share it with committee. The principle is that when we go to the regions where the Aboriginal governments have not yet signed on to devolution, I expect that we will go to their communities with some representatives of the Dehcho First Nation Government and the Akaitcho First Nation Government. We have done it before so we would do it again. They’re the best governments to tell us and make sure we don’t infringe on any rights.
How long would our government consult or work with the unsettled claimant areas like the Dehcho and Akaitcho to have them be part of the devolution of the lands and resources to the Northwest Territories?
I think it will become very clear as soon as we finish our legal and technical review and we make that draft agreement public. It won’t be for an unlimited period of time. It will probably be a very short period of time, probably a year at the most, I would suspect. We’re still finalizing that part. Sometime before the end of this week you should know the answer.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I know that the Aboriginal groups that have signed on will get some money to help them to do that same kind of consultation work. What will be available to the Dehcho and/or Akaitcho to help them understand devolution as well?
We haven’t worked that out yet. We’d have to talk to the two governments, at least.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
