Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that clarification. So is the priority task, then, of this office to pursue the themes that the Minister developed in his red alert statement of last November? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Premier McLeod.
Thank you. As long as you understand that the concern with the red alert was that there was no federal economic development strategy in place to replace the fact that there would be trillions of dollars of oil and gas left in the ground. So part of the Arctic Policy Framework would be a part of that. Also, reviewing the revised new fiscal arrangement with Aboriginal governments will be a large part of that, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I understand the need for new fiscal arrangements and to make those a priority. I guess what I am less sure about is the need to spend more money trying to revive the dormant offshore. Can the Minister confirm that that is not something that this office will be doing? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The whole concern with the fact that there was no federal economic development strategy for the Northwest Territories, there is no federal vision in place for the North, and, through the Arctic Policy Framework, the federal government has assured us that they will be developing their approach and their vision for the North to 2030 and will guide all of their activities in the North, their funding in the North, and their investments in the North and how they will help transition the economy of the Arctic, which includes the three northern territories, Newfoundland, Labrador, Quebec, and Manitoba. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, so I feel like I am putting the pieces together now. So one of the key pieces will be the development and implementation or the remainder of the development and implementation of the Arctic Policy Framework; is that correct? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our biggest concern was that there was no accompanying federal economic development strategy; there was no vision for the North or for the Arctic. I guess the federal government has indicated and they are well under way in undertaking work to develop an Arctic Policy Framework. We have written to them and agreed to participate in the development of that framework. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Ms. Green.
Thank you very much to the Minister for his responses. Nothing further.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. My colleague from Yellowknife Centre raised some concerns I was going to speak to with regard to this additional staff person in Ottawa, but I have a few other questions on it. $387,000 sounds like a lot of money for one person. Can the Minister just provide some kind of breakdown on how this money is going to be used? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the $387,000 is broken down into four various themes: Compensation and benefits, $225,000; operational expenses associated with the position of $12,000; travel, $50,000; and then contract services to support the activities for $100,000; for a total of $387,000. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that breakdown. $50,000 for travel for one person, that person is going to be spending a lot of time in the air, I guess. Is that money, then, going to be supporting other people to go to Ottawa, or does that come out of other departmental budgets or ministerial budgets? Just what is the travel money for? It just sounds like a lot of money for one person to be flying back and forth between Ottawa and Yellowknife. That may be one trip a week or something. Okay, let's find out what the money is for. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the $50,000 in travel is there to support the position. It is also there to support what we think may be requirements for other folks in the GNWT to travel to support the activity. It may also be used to help pay for travel for folks who we may want to bring in from Ottawa to educate them on the realities of the NWT. One of the issues that we are finding is that there are folks in the federal government and elsewhere in Ottawa and in southern Canada who have influence; their understanding of the realities of the North are limited and somewhat dated, in particular the federal public service, who seem to think, when they come up with programming, they don't get the difference, that we are unlike in the South where they generally have a reserve system for Indigenous people, that we have integrated programming and services in the NWT. So we need to take opportunities to educate them. Part of the travel and some of that money in the travel budget would be used to undertake that endeavour, as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I am just not terribly comfortable with having a $50,000 pot of money to bring people down to Ottawa without really sort of having many parameters around that, but I guess we will just have to see how it is used. On the contract services of $100,000, can someone explain what that is for? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So a few aspects that we will be looking at to obtain some outside services in helping with is around educating Canada about the NWT. So one of the aspects of the federal engagement strategy is to demonstrate and share where the NWT could be a model for Canada in areas such as Indigenous rights, recognition, reconciliation, and government-to-government relationships, co-management, and revenue sharing.
So the main audience would be the federal public service but also thought leaders and academics, looking at seeding some academic research around the unique NWT models and results being achieved, support for public conversations and awareness workshops and panels on northern models and issues, and opportunities for federal officials, as I said earlier, to learn about the NWT through learning events within the public service or other forums that could include support for bringing federal officials to the NWT; looking at producing some materials to help to tell our story. This is primarily research and design, translation, and printing fact sheets and other information that can be used in meetings with federal officials and others to graphically illustrate key issues in the context for decision-making. Some of the areas that we will probably look to focus on will be the NWT economy, territorial programs and service financing, and intersecting of financing with the Indigenous governments; an illustration on how the GNWT mandates priorities on infrastructure; sustainable development; and how people can contribute to the priorities; Canada's priorities for sustainable economic growth and jobs; other research and expert support.
There are new and emerging issues for which the GNWT is not typically known to have capacity for and expertise in Ottawa. This again could include commissioning and receiving research on areas that help bolster our decisions with federal counterparts. Expenditures in this area could also be used to help us consider the implications of domestic and international policy changes that the federal government was bringing through the Arctic Policy Framework. We know that the whole international area with respect to the Arctic is increasingly becoming important to Canada. We have to better understand our role in that, how the broader world economy may impact us. Again, educating the world about the NWT.
Another way to engage the attention of the federal officials is through participation in international forums for both public forums and Cabinet, such as the Arctic Council and the Arctic Circle. This would be used, as I said, again, to have expertise that we don't currently have in the government to help us with that endeavour. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the detailed explanation. I am still not sure about this expenditure. Is there actually a job description that is available for this position? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will provide a copy of the job description as soon as we have completed it, which will be in the near future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I will just go on record as having questions or concerns about this particular expenditure. If there had been more of an emphasis on infrastructure, maybe getting our territorial formula funding arrangement changed, I could support this. It looks to me like this is a lot of the sort of messaging that the Premier has already started with his red alert campaign. I don't think I could support this.
I want to move on to one other item in this section of the budget. It is also highlighted in the budget address document of additional $595,000 to be allocated to help finalize Indigenous rights agreements. Can someone tell me what that money is going to be used for and what it is going to accomplish? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That money will be used to have a push to try to significantly advance, if not finalize, the outstanding land claims in the next couple of years. It will be for negotiators. Also, the Ministerial Special Representative in the reports made some recommendations for our government to play a much enhanced facilitation role in having Aboriginal governments meet to resolve outstanding issues amongst themselves. I think we are at a point where we made revised offers to the NWT Metis Nation and to the Akaitcho government. We are optimistic that we will be making a similar offer to the Dehcho First Nations in the near future, as well. I think that these resources will allow us to do so. Maybe I will ask Mr. Courtoreille to go into more detail with regard to the breakdown of the funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Time has expired, but I will allow more clarification. Go ahead, Mr. Courtoreille.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $595,000 proposed for this budget item consists of $450,000 in contract services primarily related to the hiring of additional negotiators; $55,000 related to travel; and $90,000 related to facilitation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Courtoreille. Further questions? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for your patience. I just have a couple of others I want to follow up on, on this one. We have had a couple of years where the budget for negotiations or support for negotiations has been cut in the previous two budgets. It is good to see there is going to be some increased funding here. What assurance can the Minister give us that this is going to help close these deals? We are more than two years past the beginning of our mandate, and there hasn't been one new agreement signed. The joint advisory committee that was set up with the MLAs has met twice. What assurance can the Premier give us that these deals are going to be closed in the less than two years left in our mandate? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is not a business where I can guarantee or give any assurances. All I can say is we are giving it an all-out effort to significantly advance the outstanding land claims. I believe that with these additional resources and renewed effort and new approach, that we will make significant progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. O'Reilly, further questions to this activity summary? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to see if I can get some additional clarification with regard to the negotiations. Premier, you noted that there is an effort going on with regard to the outstanding land rights agreements. You mention the NWT Metis, and I am just wondering if you can comment on: where does the North Slave Metis Alliance sit in this? Obviously, it has been very publicly known that they have had concerns about not being consulted in the past. They won a recent court case that has suggested that both levels of government have not consulted fairly with them. Now that this has been done, on a go-forward basis, what would be the steps in which our government would deal with the North Slave Metis Alliance as it relates to land rights? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Premier McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the court process, the judge, when it came to Aboriginal rights for hunting, which for the Metis North Slave Alliance, which to my mind there was never any doubt or question, the judge also directed that there be a strength of claim review with regards to what the North Slave Metis Alliance were requesting. Both the Government of Canada and our government completed strengths of claims. The North Slave Metis Alliance and the NWT Metis Nation had an open house, which they reached and signed an agreement that would describe how they would go forward. The MSR also made some recommendations as to the fact that we should play a greater facilitation role, and also, he had some recommendations as to how the NWT Metis Nation, in their draft AIP or in their draft negotiations, should deal with the North Slave Metis Alliance, which, obviously, is just a recommendation from the MSR, but certainly we are willing to try to play a facilitator's role. I think that is where it is at right now.
Generally, we become involved if the federal government recognizes that there is a table for land claims negotiations. That has been the policy of our government, and right now, they are still seeking a table to further negotiations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the insight. I really appreciate that. I am also wondering: has the NWT Metis and the North Slave Metis Alliance, either or both of them, made a request yet to the territorial government to mediate any kind of discussions between the two or discrepancies between the two to this point? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Premier McLeod.
Well, we as a government have met on bilateral basis with the NWT Metis Nation, where they requested an opportunity to clarify their positions on several long-standing items, and I certainly believe that we had a very good discussion. We went a long way to having a better understanding of each other's positions, and I think it certainly advanced the discussions.
We were invited to the public meeting that the NWT Metis Nation leadership had here in Yellowknife, along the North Slave Metis Alliance, and at some point, early in the meeting, they asked the government people to leave, and they were able to reach an agreement on, going forward, how they would work together is my understanding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Premier McLeod. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Questions? Seeing none, I shall call the summary expenditure on page 125, Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs, operations expenditure summary, $8,081,000. Does committee agree?
