Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Wherever ENR has a role to play, it’s my understanding that we are complying. If there are other departments involved in terms of monitoring the employment and those types of things, I’m not in a position necessarily to speak to that. But I know, as a government, our intent is to fully comply and monitor where we have an obligation. Thank you.
In terms of the monitoring, I would ask the Minister, if his department could review the obligations in terms of this government, the aboriginal governments and the invited guests, the outfitters, in terms of the agreements here? In terms of monitoring, there are certain provisions within our regulations that would be very helpful in terms of working on a committed agreement by our communities and the outfitters in terms of employment, in terms of wildlife meat coming into the communities. Can the Minister look at having a review if all parties could sit down and see where we could strengthen this agreement?
Yes, I will, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
On the outfitters in terms of the ownership, can the Minister confirm if there have been no changes to the ownership of the Arctic Red Outfitters and that there’s no licence that needs to be changed in terms of this issue? Thank you.
My understanding was that the issue of concern was that in fact the licence had changed hands and there was concern about whether due process was followed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d certainly be anxious to look at the due process in terms of this licence. I’ll ask the Minister again in terms of the outfitters and in terms of the wildlife officers that do monitor the outfitters in terms of wildlife meat, my understanding is there’s just over 8,000 pounds of meat that’s being taken out by the outfitters and that is equivalent to about $75,000 worth if you were to buy that in a retail store. Can the Minister confirm to me or answer to me in terms of this wildlife food that’s being taken out, that every part of this wildlife food is being distributed to the communities in the Sahtu or Gwich’in or Deh Cho communities?
As far as I’m aware, that is the practice. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on the questions about the outfitters, I think one of the integrated regulatory boards that we seemed to have missed here or, basically, I just noted, is the green resource boards in the Gwich’in Settlement Area and the Sahtu. We have a regulatory system that’s changed the management of wildlife and the regulatory boards that we established under the land claim agreements. I’d just like to ask the Minister exactly what is the role of the boards when it comes to outfitter licence? Because under the land claim agreements it specifically states that they would be an instrument for wildlife management in the settlement areas where the boards shall have the following powers: to establish the policies and report regulations in respect to harvesting of wildlife by any person, and it also lists under three commercial activities relating to wildlife, including commercial establishment of facilities, commercial harvesting, and then it also goes on to B, which is guiding and outfitting services. So under the land claim agreements, the boards have responsibilities in that general area.
So in light of the situation that happened between the Gwich’in and the Sahtu regions where you have two regions where an outfitter licence overlaps, you have two boards which overlap, I’d like to ask the Minister what role do the renewable resource councils play in the decision of acquiring a licence and also overseeing those licences?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking a situation that involves dual jurisdictions, it involves conflicting rights of first refusal. I’ve indicated in this House that we’ve initiated a process within the Government of the Northwest Territories, with the aboriginal governments, with the management boards and stakeholders over the coming months to look at this whole issue in relation to how we do business, our obligations under the land claims and the roles of the boards that are creatures of those land claims, and we expect to have, hopefully, a resolution to that in the coming months. Thank you.
If the Minister is serious about resolving this issue and where the dispute is between authorities and jurisdictions and, more importantly, an outfitter, I’d like to ask the Minister if he’s willing to facilitate a meeting between the different regions, the renewable resource councils, the aboriginal organizations, to talk about this particular matter and try to find ways to resolve this issue from happening in the future by having a meeting sooner than waiting a couple months down the road and coordinate a meeting within the next couple of weeks.
Work is underway to get this process going, recognizing the complexity of the situation and the circumstances, the two land claims, different jurisdictions, a number of questions to be resolved in relation to aboriginal governments, management boards, the full role of the GNWT. We started this process, we just anticipate that the discussions may take some time, but we are on this one already.
Not even close to giving me an answer. Again, the question is: will the Minister intervene and try to coordinate a meeting between the parties with regard to the renewable resource councils and the aboriginal organizations to discuss this issue with regard to the outfitters between the Sahtu, the Gwich’in and to find resolutions to this problem going forward?
I have been involved in this issue since we first became aware of it. We’ve had discussions with the deputy and we’ve agreed on a course of action. The deputy, the most senior official in the Department of Natural Resources, is on this issue. We are getting the folks to the table and we are going to have this resolved hopefully through the process I have been talking about in this House today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, does the Minister have a date for this particular meeting and can he keep myself and the Member for the Sahtu in the process going forward? Does he have a time for the prescribed meeting? Thank you.
Yes, we will keep the Member for Mackenzie Delta and the Member for Sahtu fully informed. As well, I will get to them a timeline and a work plan of what is being planned in terms of the meetings required to resolve this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister of Department of Executive regarding residential school survivors, more specifically to the parents who went to the school. Mr. Speaker, I have asked the Minister what type of programs this government is doing to support the residential schools survivors.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to touch base with the appropriate Ministers and get that information or have those Ministers reply back to the Member in this area. Thank you.
Some of the parents had sent their kids, or were told to send their kids, or kids were taken to these residential schools. Some of these parents, when they wanted to visit their children, had to stay outside the building and put their camps there and visit their children. There are lots of issues that need to be resolved there. I want to ask the Minister, the Women’s Advisory office provides a point of contact within the GNWT on issues of concern to women, would the Premier consider appointing a residential school advisor who would have a similar mandate to be a point of contact with our government for survivors of residential schools?
There are a number of organizations involved in the residential school area between the federal government, our government and outside organizations and agencies. Before I could respond to that, I would have to see what’s happening out there. Again, I would go through the appropriate Ministers to get the information and respond at that point.
Would the Minister, then, inform the House and people of the Northwest Territories that he would seriously consider this position is not in the territorial government and is something he would seriously look at in terms of helping healing and reconciliation of residential school survivors and the parents of these children that were taken to these schools?
Again, before I can respond to that, I would need to get all the information as to what’s been done, what resources have been in place, the supports that are in place right now to make sure we don’t create an overlap or divert away from what other groups have there, what mandates might be established out there. So once we get that information we will be able to respond to the Member and get additional information as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the residential school survivors have an interagency committee within this territorial government. This has been supportive in ways that are beneficial. I want to take it a step further. I do know there is not a resident residential school advisor to the Department of Executive. Again, I would ask the Premier, once he does research this request, would he come forward to the House and have suggestions to appointing an advisor to the Department of Executive such as the Women’s Advisory Council had?
Again, without having the background information what other agencies and what some of our departments are involved in, supports in this area, it’s hard for me to commit to establishing a position. We would have to go through our business plan process. We would have to see what this position would be doing and advocating for and what would be required. Whereas, right now, we do have some supports through our departments, Education, Culture and Employment being one of those. Again, I would have to get that information and provide that to the Member and decide where we would go with something like this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to get clarity on a question to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources in regards to the process in terms of the sales of the outfitters. The Minister has indicated there are two rights of refusal. I just want to get it very clear for my people. You have two land claims that have two specific clauses for two rights of refusal. The Minister has, by definition -- I don’t know which definition -- it seems the Department of Justice has given some clear definitions that there is only one you could use. However, you have two constitutionally protected modern agreements. Will the Minister go back and see what is the definition...We in the Sahtu have not been consulted in terms of the sale of this outfitter. Has the Minister gone to the Sahtu leadership and said what are your thoughts on this sale?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. “What if” questions are always difficult to answer. As I have indicated to the Member in this House and in writing September 10th, we have initiated and embarked upon a process with the aboriginal governments, the management boards, our own departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories and stakeholders, to try to resolve that issue; two competing rights of first refusal. In this case, the Gwich’in were given the right of first refusal first. It can only be offered once and then it’s no longer first refusal. So that’s the question we have to try to answer between two land claims and overlapping licence. Thank you.
Certainly as I stand here with my friend from the Mackenzie Delta in terms of this issue, I want to again say when this issue came up...Has the Minister considered going to an arbitration panel in terms of this important issue? It’s very important in my region. Has the Minister thought to look at a process through an arbitration panel?
It probably would be one of the questions we’d ask. Who helped negotiate these agreements that left us...
Ohhh.
...in this circumstance? Do we go to an arbitration panel? That might be where we end up once this process goes through the steps and we consult and we talk to the aboriginal governments, the management boards, the stakeholders and see how we resolve this, because it is an area where there is an area of dispute and we need to come up with a way to resolve this. Thank you.
I guess, then, in terms of the interpretation of these negotiations with the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories and the interpretation of these agreements, sometimes that also needs to be discussed. Regarding this agreement that was interpreted by a definition of the government, when the Minister found out, did he inform the Sahtu leadership that we have an issue here rather than just say because the Gwich’in has a majority of the ownership, they have the first right to answer to the first right of refusal?
As the Member asked again, I will answer again. We recognize that there is an issue here between the Sahtu and the Gwich’in and a licence that covers overlaps in two regions. We have embarked upon a process, as I have indicated to the Member in this House and in writing, that will involve the Sahtu government, Gwich’in government, stakeholder, management boards, the Government of the Northwest Territories and gather around and sort out the issue that I am sure will have some complexities to it and will take some time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member for Mackenzie Delta has stated, the owners of this sale are mostly the foreign people, Americans, in terms of this new outfitting business. Now I want to ask the Minister in terms of the licensing of the outfitter areas, we have a percentage in the Sahtu. Again, does that automatically make a new licence or amend the licence so this new outfitter can operate in our region without getting the proper consent from the Sahtu people under our land claim that is constitutionally protected?
Mr. Speaker, we started this process to resolve those issues and they are increasingly complex questions the Member is posing in this House. We are not going to be able to resolve that level of complex question in this House in question period. I am not an expert, unlike my colleague from the Sahtu, on negotiating land claims. It’s a question that is going to have to be resolved, and we set up a process to answer those questions and all the others that are going to come forth as we look at this issue. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The question I would like to raise today is how we can get more boots on the ground, from an enforcement point of view, than in the cars driving by. Mr. Speaker, I have talked to the Minister of Justice about this issue where there is a call out there by the public wanting to see more activity from our enforcement side on the ground, speaking to people, meeting people and developing that personality and presence in the community. We know that in the city of Yellowknife we have municipal enforcement, also known as bylaw, and many other communities and regions have bylaw officers. One of the problems we have is resourcing this. So in bringing this problem to the Minister of Justice, I talked to him about finding ways to help deter some crime, in partnership with the RCMP, before it turns into that negative aspect of crime actually happening, and then the processing of the crime, and then it goes on and on and the cost to the justice system.
Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister of Justice is: would he be interested in opening up a dialogue that we could come up with potentially -- and I stress potentially, Mr. Speaker -- some seed money to try to get more enforcement officers on the ground accessing the resources of municipal enforcement through some type of cooperating agreement with the RCMP and help develop a model that we can push out to the regions that this would be a program that we could develop together with both the City of Yellowknife and the regions to see if we can get more activity from our enforcement side to help deter crime? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
