Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, my questions today are for the Premier. I’d like to ask a few questions relating to my statement earlier today.
We heard yesterday, we have heard earlier this week, that we are embarking on a consultation and an engagement process. The Premier, yesterday, in answer to my questions, laid out next steps, but in those next steps I didn’t hear any indication of the provision of information on how the Devolution Final Agreement will be implemented.
I’d like to know from the Premier if he can advise whether or not the public engagement process, whether there’s an intent to educate residents about implementation of the Devolution Final Agreement or is it simply to advise people of the content of the Devolution Final Agreement.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, to both parts.
Thank you to the Premier. I’ve very glad to hear that we will be talking about implementation. I hope that’s a very large focus of the public engagement process.
With regard to implementation, our government has already done a great deal of work. They’ve been working on implementation for probably a year or more. I’d like to know, to date, what steps the government has taken to inform the public, to advise the public of what this new GNWT will look like after April 1st.
We put a significant amount of information on the website, and as we go forward with organization design, we will also provide that on the website. We will also provide for that as we go around to all of the communities in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you to the Premier. It’s one thing to put information on a website and expect that people will go there. I haven’t seen much that advertises that website, so I would hope that there’s going to be significantly more effort put in to trying to get that information out there.
One of the things that I have heard as a concern, and this is from a news article recently, it stated there are concerns that the environment and the preservation of the land will take a backseat to the exploitation of energy and minerals. This is referencing after April 1, 2014, when we have control.
When we do have control of our lands, water and resources, will the GNWT maintain the same level of environmental monitoring and assessment that we have today?
It seems like just yesterday that some of the Members from across the way were quoting from the Commissioner of the Environment, who was complaining about the fact that the federal government was only doing 20 percent of the required land inspections. I’m sure we can do better than that, but if the Member wants us to maintain that level, we can do that too.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Through you to the Premier, I absolutely don’t want us to do worse than what we think we might do, but I have heard nothing which says that we’re going to do better than what we have already from the feds.
The Premier mentions that there’s a lot of work been done. I wonder if the Premier could give us some idea of how our new government will be structured after April 1, 2014.
I don’t want to get ahead of committee, and I’ve committed to committee that we will bring the organizational design, and once we’ve had input from committee, I’ll be pleased to make it available to the public.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
