Thank you. We’ll do that and as we flush out our thinking in more detail, we’ll also make sure that the public is more aware of it. Thank you.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Committee, we are on 4-22, which is active positions, implementation. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One point that Mr. Bromley made mention to is the Sahtu Land Use Plan. The Premier talked about that specific land use plan and I spoke to the board and member for the Sahtu Use Plan and March 5th was the 30-day time period for feedback to the final draft of the Sahtu Land Use Plan. I’m very curious as to a couple of issues that need to be worked out with the GNWT before it goes to the Cabinet for final approval, and the SSI would also be needing to give its final approval. Once the final approvals of both governments, then they ship it over to the federal government for their blessing and signing off and we would have a Sahtu Land Use Plan similar to the Gwich’in, which will be finalized. So I want to ask Mr. Premier if he thinks that within the life of this government that we’ll have a Sahtu Land Use Plan with the other land use plans also moving up, and that the territorial government will do its utmost best efforts to wrap up some of the issues that the Premier talked about that need to be sorted out? So we’re very much looking forward to it, in light of the oil and gas exploration happening in the Sahtu. So this will bring certainty to development and sustainability of our resources in the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The government works together through a Cabinet committee, called Managing This Land, where we bring all the different departments that have responsibilities for land or land management and dealing with land use planning. Right now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is leading the Government of the Northwest Territories’ internal review of the Sahtu Land Use Plan through a collaborative interdepartmental working group. We do that to make sure that the plan respects the roles and responsibilities that are set out in the various land claims and the MVRMA. We want consistent direction to the government.
I can commit to get back to the Member with more information, but my understanding is that the approving partners are waiting for a decision from the Sahtu Land Use Planning Board as to whether or not we can share the draft final plan for a targeted four-week scan. I will get back to the Member with more detailed information.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Page 4-22, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, implementation, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 4-25, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, operations expenditure summary, $1.525 million. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two questions to the Premier regarding the intergovernmental affairs relationships engaging with the Metis groups in the North. My first question is: What is the GNWT’s policy or position when it comes to engaging with Metis groups and how long ago was that established?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess we came up with this policy when the Metis Nation no longer existed. At that time we tried to find a consistent approach, and the government of the day decided that they would take the money that was available for funding the Metis Nation and divide it up amongst the 17 Metis locals that were in existence at the time. The money stayed the same for all these years and the last few years we took an approach whereby if some of the money was not disbursed, we would disburse it before the end of the fiscal year to those Metis locals that were in good standing because, of the 17 Metis locals, there was only 10 or 11 that were in good standing. We would go through an exercise where we would give them their allocation and then towards the end of the year, if there was a surplus we would disburse it.
More recently we’ve made the conscious decision that we would only fund the 11 Metis locals that are in good standing and we took the $250,000 that was there and we split it 11 ways. It works out to somewhere in the neighbourhood of between $13,000 to $20,000 per year to each local.
I appreciate the information the Premier has given me. I have to save some of this stuff for Member’s statements.
One more question. There have been some movements on the Metis rights with recent court case law. What is the government doing to analyze the impacts of that case law and how it might affect the way we work with Metis groups in the future?
As we predicted, the Government of Canada has appealed the decision. Our preliminary analysis is that it would have minimal or no impact in the Northwest Territories because of the fact that we’ve been treating Metis differently. We’re the only jurisdiction in Canada that has Metis health benefits. We’ve been accorded hunting rights. If anything, if the decision stands up we may have been able to recover some of the money that we spent on behalf of Metis, but that remains to be seen because it’s before the courts.
We’ll just have to wait for that appeal decision to go through the process and see what comes out of it. I will leave it up to the good judges to decide on that on there. I’m not going to get too far on that one here. Certainly I know that we’ve been very fortunate with the Metis health benefits. I know when my mother was alive she was certainly happy to have these health benefits because it really helped her out a lot there. Of course, with the Sahtu Dene and Metis land claims we have hunting rights. I come from the same people. My grandfather was a true-blooded Dene and those are the rights that he gave to me through my bloodline. I want to say that I’m still using them to the fullest and I thank my grandparents for that. Also, the Sahtu Dene and Metis is the first comprehensive land claim in Canada that gives rights to a Metis Nation. No other has been given that type of rights. They are a nation of people and, certainly, I continue to advocate for them. If there’s a story to be told, maybe one day we’ll sit down and listen to how Metis people grew up in the North and how we were looked upon by this very federal government of the day. Things are changing so I did want to say that we’ve come a long way and we’ll continue moving. Those are comments. The Premier really doesn’t have to make any comments. I just wanted to make known a little bit of what I want to really express. I’ll need a day and a half to do that. This time I just don’t have that time.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Again, committee, we’re on 4-25. I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on the Intergovernmental Council that the Premier mentioned earlier. I assume this division would be the one working with this. I believe it’s a construct that would happen after devolution. If I could just get an idea of what the membership would be and the role would be of the Intergovernmental Council, and maybe what GNWT’s position or relevance with respect to the council would be.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That responsibility lies with the Department of Executive but I’ll answer it anyway. Under the AIP on devolution, Section 6 provides for an Intergovernmental Council essentially so that all of the different governments can work together to manage the jurisdictions together but each being responsible for their own jurisdiction. We would have this council so that we would all work together to deal with land issues and resource issues and so on. That was the idea behind the Intergovernmental Council.
That gets me in the ballpark and I think I’ll leave it at that. I’m sure we’ll be having lots more discussions on that.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Page 4-25, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, operations expenditure summary, $1.525 million.
Agreed.
Page 4-26, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, grants and contributions, grants, $350,000.
Agreed.
Page 4-27, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, intergovernmental relations, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 4-28, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, lease commitments - infrastructure.
Agreed.
Page 4-29 and 4-30, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, work performed on behalf of others, $547,000. Mr. Yakeleya.
I just have a quick question here on the work on behalf of others. We have some very bright students who are going to post-secondary education. Recently I heard in the news that Human Rights was going to hear that the federal government – I’m not too sure what you call it, underfunded or undermined – did not live up to the obligations of the Aboriginal children for education. I’m not too sure exactly on the hearing but it seems that it could be a possibility. I’m not too sure. I want to know if the Minister, within this department, has some interning students who have done some work on post-secondary that could look at some studies on Aboriginal health or education or things like that that will help us with our land claim operations and self-government agreements. Do we have that type of arrangement with other universities or any type of things that would give some research to our communities as we start negotiating and taking over some of the responsibilities of the programs and services?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Implementation funding is to provide for funding of those activities that have been negotiated under the various land claims. As far as money for hiring interns to do research in different areas, that’s more usually done through the different departments like Health or Education. We do have two summer students usually every summer but we don’t have any interns planned.
Thank you, Mr. Premier, for clarifying that. I probably got mixed up between some of the issues. I just think that because we’re on the brink of forming a government-to-government relationship that some prudence would be given to some of the self-government organizations and self-governments. Maybe that’s something we have to talk about on a larger scale as to education, health, and having summer students or interns that are finished with degrees and could be of assistance to us as to our community or government. We can carry that on some other time. I just wanted to get a sense of where the Premier was at and certainly help me clarify some of the issues here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Pages 4-29 and 4-30, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, work performed on behalf of others, $547,000.
Agreed.
If I could get you to turn back to page 4-7, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $7.416 million.
Agreed.
Does committee agree that consideration of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations is concluded?
Agreed.
Mr. Robertson, Mr. Bevan, thank you for joining us this evening. Thank you, Mr. McLeod. If I could get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.
If I can turn your attention to section 5, Finance. I will turn it over to Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Miltenberger, do you have any opening comments?
I do, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present the Department of Finance’s Main Estimates for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
For 2013-14, the department has identified a total operations budget of approximately $156.3 million, which represents a 10 percent increase over the current fiscal year.
The operations budget is comprised of:
A $67.5 million contribution to the NWT Housing Corporation to provide the Corporation with its operating cash flow for the fiscal period.
The remaining $80.8 million for department operations represents a 10 percent increase from the 2012-13 Main Estimates. This is primarily the result of:
$7 million to continue to advance the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link Project. This project will provide a high-speed data link up the valley and will have significant positive impacts for economic and community development and the delivery of government services;
$8.2 million resulting from the transfer of funding from the Department of Transportation for the semi-annual debt service payments on the Deh Cho Bridge debt;
These increases are partially offset by a $6.2 million decrease to the contribution made to the NWT Power Corporation to help mitigate the impacts of increased power rates resulting from the corporation’s general rate application.
As the government’s lead revenue department, the revenues managed by the department are projected to total approximately $1.48 billion, or about 92 percent of the total GNWT revenues of $1.61 billion being forecast for the 2013-14 fiscal year. This represents a 5 percent increase from the 2012-13 Main Estimates. This is attributable to a projected increase of $51 million in federal transfers, and a projected increase of $13 million in corporate income tax revenues and $7.5 million in personal income tax revenue forecasts.
Each of the business activities of the department provides a foundation for all other activities of government, through assessing new revenue sources, managing expenditure growth, protecting assets, providing critical fiscal, financial and economic information, and promoting accountability.
The department’s 2013-14 Main Estimates continue to support the priorities of the 17th Assembly, and continuing initiatives that will support the sustainability of our territory for future generations. As Members are aware, the Premier has issued specific mandates to each Minister to support these priorities. Specific activities in the department’s 2013-14 Main Estimates include:
the continuation of several modern management initiatives such as the renewal of the Financial Administration Act, the planning and implementation of financial shared services across the GNWT, and finalizing the Service Innovation Strategy, formerly the Knowledge Management Strategy;
advancing the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link Project;
supporting the efforts to ensure a successful completion of a Devolution Final Agreement and the implementation of the agreement;
supporting the development and implementation of a GNWT approach to decentralization;
a fiscal strategy that supports the priorities of this Assembly but also recognizes the GNWT has finite resources, and we need to continue our plan to reduce overall short-term debt;
developing a strategy that recognizes the volatility of our revenues and plans to ensure stable revenues for planning and budgetary purposes.
That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Miltenberger, do you have witnesses to bring into the Chamber tonight?
Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses inside.
Mr. Miltenberger, if you can introduce your witnesses to the House, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister, Mr. Mike Aumond, and the deputy secretary to the Financial Management Board, Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar. If either one of them faint tonight it’s because I was insensitive and did not invite them in to have supper, and I publicly apologize for that.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Your insensitivity is noted. Mr. Kalgutkar, Mr. Aumond, welcome to the House this evening.
Committee, we will defer 5-7. Moving on to 5-8, Finance, information item. I am so sorry. I did this last time. General comments. I guess I’m just being clairvoyant.
Detail.
Thank you, committee. Page 5-8, Finance, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?
Agreed.
