Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions now are for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Last week the press secretary issued a media advisory announcing the third annual meeting of the Intergovernment Council which comprises of course the GNWT and nine First Nations, as well as the Inuvialuit Government. To quote the advisory, they were meeting to cooperate and collaborate on matters related to lands and resource management. I'm wondering if the Minister can give us any more detail of the topics on the agenda? Thank you.
Honourable Premier.
Mr. Speaker, we had a meeting on Friday. It was very well attended by all of the signatories to the devolution agreement, and the discussion was to review the recommendations of the secretariat and also to review implementation of the devolution agreement, specifically related to the commitment to devolve and evolve and to understand what the priorities of the Aboriginal governments were. We also gave an update on the recreational land management initiative of this government and on climate change and energy, the consultations that we will undertaking as a government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Premier for that answer. Mr. Speaker, in June of this year I asked the Premier a series of questions about content of similar meetings held with the same group of people, and I asked him if he would keep Regular Members informed of and invite our input into positions being put forward at these meetings by him and other Members of Cabinet. Can the Minister explain why this didn't happen this time either? Thank you.
We invited the Chair of the Standing Committee of Priorities and Planning to attend and also this is a meeting of the Aboriginal governments that have signed onto devolution, and I have responded in this House in the past, we have put forward a suggestion that other MLAs could be invited to attend as observers, and the Aboriginal governments have indicated they would prefer to keep the membership participation of the table to two representatives from each Aboriginal government that has signed on.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the talks need to have limited numbers of people, but we're talking about the shape of our future governmental relationships between this government of the Northwest Territories and the Aboriginal governments, and it seems to me that this is an issue that everybody in this House has an interest in and a stake in.
So I'd like to go back to my point about how the Minister can involve us if not through prior consultation about meeting project topics, then in what other ways he can involve us in shaping these relationships?
We meet with the Aboriginal governments once a year and we have a secretariat, and I'm not sure exactly how the Member would like to see the government involved but you know we have our regular briefings with the standing committees and we can certainly offer to provide a briefing to have that discussion.
I appreciate the offer of the briefing and I will talk to my colleagues about how to make that operational. I think the thing is that the ways things exist now is that we're kind of left out of the picture except for the one Member on this side who attends those meetings on our behalf that we don’t have an active say in what topics are discussed and what positions are taken, and I believe that we should have a role in that because what the NWT looks like in the future is of concern to all of us. So my question again is whether the Minister in addition to offering a briefing can consider other ways to involve Regular MLAs in shaping the future relationships with Aboriginal and regional organizations?
I'm quite prepared to raise it with the Aboriginal government leaders, and in the past the Aboriginal governments have offered to come and meet with the committees and that offer was never accepted, but we certainly can raise it again. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
