Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Premier just on the draft AIP in regards to the signatories to the agreement. Right now we have a bilateral. It is the federal government and the territorial government. There are no lines there for any of the aboriginal governments to sign on. I understand that the aboriginal governments can sign on later on. Right now the parameters are being set between the federal government and the territorial government. There are some major issues with the aboriginal governments of being signatories of this. Why are the aboriginal governments not signatories to this agreement here in terms of our discussions on the government-to-government relationships?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The AIP spells out the involvement of the GNWT and the federal government. It also incorporates a forward-going involvement of aboriginal governments in the process. Through discussions with the leaders at the table, it was felt that they would have that opportunity to join on, but if they were to sign a document side by side and they may have some disputes on some of it or their claims processes, there was some unease there. But what is in place is a government-to-government relationship and a bilateral process government to government with the GNWT, and the door is open for ongoing negotiations to involve and have our partners at the table with us. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, was this a position that, as to the aboriginal government not being party to the negotiations as we have,... Sorry; the draft agreement as we seen as a signatory to the agreement. Was this the position of the federal government in terms of a divide and conquer tactic in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. Speaker, the process leading up to this has been inclusive of all those who wanted to be at the table, who chose to be at the table and were funded to be at the table. They have been part of the working group at both technical sessions and negotiation sessions up to where we are today. They were informed of the process and the document in whole. We are now waiting to see their response to that document. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Speaker, I take this type of scenario, like Mr. Premier has indicated, as the house. I look inside the house, around the kitchen table and see the father and mother and children there, they are talking and saying, okay, children, father and mother are going to negotiate a deal and whoever wants to sign on can be with us, depending on which side you want to go. This is in my sense that we need to look at the average. I want to ask the Premier in terms of between now and whenever we have a decision made as to sign or not sign, deal or no deal, how are we going to somehow include the average where they are satisfied.
I have documents in front of me that give me reasons why this is not a good deal for the average, especially for the land claim negotiations that are going in my region. I want to ask the Minister, do we have some time to have some discussion where we can all agree to move forward onto the next chapter of the history of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, the Member, having experience as a chief negotiator quite involved in the land claims process within the Northwest Territories in his past life, is quite familiar. Once the chief negotiators initialled off and sent it to the parties for decision, that document is then decided upon as it goes forward from that draft agreement-in-principle towards a formal set of negotiations. That incorporates a whole new level of talks and all the players at the table as full partners. This joint letter that has gone out has invited the groups to be a part of our table and be full partners. This is not adult to children, this is all adults and making a decision about should we be at the table or not. We will respect their decision as they make it, if they want to be a part of it or not and hopefully as they see that final set of negotiations being done, the interest is let’s be at that table and let’s influence the outcome. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. Certainly the Premier is correct in terms of my former role as chief negotiator. Also, when we did go through that process, when we did negotiate a document, we went to each household, we talked to each leader, we talked to everybody and said, now, do we want to initial to go ahead and do some further negotiations, that is another process. So, I mean, that is what I am asking about.
This government here, when...and thank God to CBC for publishing this important document so everybody could have a chance to read it. I made some phone calls, phone calls came to me, people in my riding did not know what was going on. Now they are reading and saying, what is going on? We need to have some time to get everyone on board. I am asking the Premier in terms of some flexibility, in terms of some leadership, in terms of how do we get the people to say yes, this is what we could do. That is effective, strong, powerful government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In my many years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I have heard about the fact that governments are not organizations, they are governments. Aboriginal governments are aboriginal governments. This government is treated and sat at a table in a scenario of government to government when it comes to aboriginal governments. We have helped fund those to be a part of our discussions as we go forward, helped influence what we should package together and how we go forward. Through this process and leading up to this, those that wanted to be at the table were at the table and influenced much of the work. In fact, Chapter 6 and Chapter 12 are much about the involvement from our aboriginal partners across the North that helped influence that document. As we go forward, as we decide we proceed to the next level, that opportunity to go out to the public and say, this is what it looks like and this is what we are starting our negotiations at, where do you think we are on this. At the same time, we have to be very careful of the processes that we are involved with and we will continue to do so in respect to all the partners that are involved in this. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Roland. Item 9, written questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to otem 6 on the Order Paper.
---Unanimous consent granted
The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
