Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I received a letter from the Premier indicating that some time in the next week or so he’s going to meet with the aboriginal leaders to discuss some important issues.
I want to ask the Premier to respond on behalf of my people in terms of meeting with aboriginal leaders. We had a new election that just finished. We have a new government. In terms of the bigger issues in the Northwest Territories — its direction, unsettled land claims, devolution, resource revenue sharing…. The spirit and intent of meeting with aboriginal leadership is to move the agenda of the Northwest Territories forward so we get a fair shake in dealing with the federal government. We need to become stronger in the direction we’re taking on a number of issues, which people in the North want to see.
I would ask the Premier his intent to meet with aboriginal people, get them onside and knock on the door of Mr. Harper.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process we have established for the 16th Assembly is the regional leaders meeting held with regional leaders and me and the appropriate Cabinet Ministers, depending on the items that would come on the agenda. That process allows for the regional leadership to put items on the agenda as well as the government. We have a number of working groups already established through our first number of meetings. The one area of devolution, resource revenue sharing…. We continue to have that on the table and will be discussing a number of issues around that.
On top of that, Mr. Speaker, the commitment is that in each region we will have a meeting with the regional leader as well as the leadership of that region once a year. That commitment’s there as well, and at that point the agenda items again are open for work from all parties.
Mr. Speaker, the previous Member, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, was talking about the issues of the small communities. Certainly, with a lot of aboriginal leaders who have to represent the small communities, that’s something these types of discussions can clear for us in this House along with the regional leaders: how we deal with the federal government on some of these programs and some of these dollars that have been allocated to the Northwest Territories through this government for the people in the small communities.
It kind of gets confusing, complex. I’m looking at it in terms of the policing in the small communities that do not have RCMP and keep coming back with lots of other challenges before them. That is something the Premier could discuss with our aboriginal leaders in terms of the obligations that Canada should have towards the aboriginal people in funding services and programs. Can the Premier elaborate on that type of discussion, besides the other big ticket items?
Mr. Speaker, as I stated, the parties at the regional leaders’ table have opportunities to put things on the agenda — programming levels, service delivery. Those areas are up for discussion if both parties agree. We’re prepared to have that discussion as well as to discuss the level of service we receive out of the federal government on specific areas. We’re prepared to have those discussions with the leadership as well.
Mr. Speaker, in terms of this meeting with the aboriginal leadership, would we see a game plan within the life of this government on how we approach the federal government to start taking over some of the devolutions, start devolving some of the programs and services? Would we see, for the people of the Northwest Territories, that we do have a game plan — this government, the aboriginal governments and the other governments — in terms of taking over some of the ownership of this land, starting to remove the fingers of the federal government so we can proudly say, “Yes, this is what we did in the 16th Assembly”? Will we see a game plan within the life of this government?
Mr. Speaker, I’m hopeful that we will be able to come up with a game plan for the Territories. Again, we’re working off the work of previous Assemblies with an agreement that was put on the table. We know what the federal government has sent back on revenue sharing and the cap. We stated that that’s not a level we are ready to sign off on. We continue to work with the regional leadership on how we can move this forward. In fact, we will be discussing the last correspondence I had with the Prime Minister, as well, and then, hopefully, see if we can move that along any further.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly look forward to the discussions that the Premier will have with his colleagues in the aboriginal governments. Is the Premier also looking at how they assemble certain provincial leaders? I know they support us regarding certain initiatives up in the northern parts of the provinces that are in similar situations and have been left isolated. There are no roads going to some of the communities; there is a high cost of living in some of the provinces. Is there a game plan that maybe one day the partners in the Northwest Territories, along with partners in Canada, can go down to Ottawa? I guess I’m looking for that date when we can say to the federal government that we mean business; no more handouts. We want to see a good deal for the North. I guess that’s what I’m looking for.
Mr. Speaker, we use every opportunity to build the support with provincial colleagues across the country. In fact, the northern Premiers have worked together already. I chair that for the remainder of this year — maybe not the remainder of this year, but for the one year term that we have the seat. We had a meeting this June with a number of initiatives put forward. We’ve used the Western Premiers’ Conference and the Council of the Federation to put forward our initiatives and continue building the support. So we will continue to use those avenues, continue to build their support. They have publicly and through press releases of these meetings supported our initiatives in moving forward with the federal government.
