Date
March
8
2005
Members Present
ITEM 1: PRAYER
Assembly Members
Debates of March 8, 2005 (day 51)
Topics
Statements
Member’s Statement On Federal Appointments To NWT Boards
Henry Zoe
North Slave
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we talk a lot in this House about the power that the federal government has over us in terms of the purse strings which they hold. However, Mr. Speaker, what we don’t talk enough about is the power that the federal government has in the Northwest Territories when it comes to the appointees of federal boards and agencies.
Mr. Speaker, the members of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board are federally appointed as are the members of the Mackenzie Valley Impact Review Board, and this is to name only a few. The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water board, for instance, has three main functions. They process land use and water use applications, issue land use and water licences and, finally, they issue directions on general policy matters concerning the use of land or water or the deposit of waste. Mr. Speaker, this means that these boards are deciding what development projects go ahead and which ones don’t. The appointees to these boards seem to have as much, if not more, power than our own elected officials. I think that these are the kinds of decisions that need to be made by the stakeholders and not by some federally-appointed body. By stakeholders, Mr. Speaker, I mean those people who have to live on the land and whose families have to live on the land and will have to suffer the consequences of the decisions they are making.
Mr. Speaker, when the federal Minister of DIAND is making appointments to a board, he or she has to think of what is good for the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I know these boards often include people appointed on the recommendations of the First Nations and also the Government of the Northwest Territories, but it is the federal Minister who has the final say. Mr. Speaker, it is the right of the aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories to be the stewards of their own land, but they cannot do this until the power to make decisions over land development rest in their hands and in their hands only. Mahsi.
---Applause