Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Premier as the Minister in charge of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. Can the Premier commit to forming a special commission or committee to determine the location of any grave sites of residential school students in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Honourable Premier.
Mr. Speaker, the deaths of these children and the findings that was found has impacted a lot of us, especially Indigenous people throughout the world and throughout Canada and for other people as well. Any mother, parent, grandparent, I'm sure is feeling some of this. And I would love to say yes. I'd love to say yes. I'm going to do this right now and take control and be a leader and do it. But that is not the right way.
I've checked into it. That was my first thing, is we need to find these children in ours. But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Mr. Speaker, under their section on missing children and burial information, which is the Action 72 to 76, it talks about the development of strategies and research projects that document and protect residential school cemeteries and unmarked burial locations.
But the big thing for me is 76(1): The Aboriginal community most affected shall lead the development of such strategies.
So in acknowledgement that I see myself as equal partners with Indigenous governments, my commitment will not be that I will take the horse and run and say this is what we shall do. My commitment is that I shall bring it forward at our multilateral table and take the guidance of the Indigenous governments of the NWT. That is my commitment, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's great. That's exactly what I was hoping for. I never anticipated that we would lead it as the Government of the Northwest Territories. So I look forward to hearing more about that.
Number two, then, sort of a little bit along line that same line is will the Premier commit to acquiring ground penetrating radar equipment and working with the I can't talk today. Sorry, Mr. Speaker. Working with the appropriate Indigenous organizations to identify those graves at the former residential school sites?
And this could be done through contracts with specialized businesses or through the creation of an Indigenous led NWT unit. So I think I'm just asking for the Premier to speak a little bit further to that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my earlier question, absolutely I want to. As soon as I seen the news and it was saying they found these children, I wanted to do the same, and I want to talk to our Prime Minister, and I am going to talk to our Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker. I am going to bring it up because I do think there is a Federal component in this as well.
But, Mr. Speaker, again, I have to be respectful of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and our Indigenous governments. The Truth and Reconciliation Act Action No. 76(3) says: Aboriginal protocols shall be respected before any potentially invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site.
So because of this action in the Truth and Reconciliation, again, Mr. Speaker, my commitment is I shall bring it forward to the Indigenous governments and shall take direction from them on how we shall move forward. This is not okay, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to slide one in here that the Premier's not aware of, then. Does the Premier commit to funding Indigenous organizations in order that they can start this work looking for grave sites of Aboriginal students. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. She's absolutely right. It wasn't a question I thought about, the funding. However, Mr. Speaker, I was already thinking the reason I am going to be talking to the Prime Minister of Canada is not so that the Prime Minister of Canada can take the lead. It's that the Prime Minister of Canada also has an obligation, in my opinion, because it was the Government of Canada and the Catholic churches that did this to our children, and they have an obligation, and I shall bring forward my opinion of the obligation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Final Supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the Premier will have a lot of support on this side for pushing Canada to make what's right. It's my understanding the cost was $1.5 million, and it was denied at the time that Canada made the decision. So I think she would have a lot of support from this side of the House.
My last question is can the Premier provide a quick update on the implementation of UNDRIP in the Northwest Territories and what she is doing to ensure that true engagement is occurring.
How has she been thinking of side box to the speak, as we all heard during our campaigns, that this was an area that needed a lot of improvement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Member knows me, and so she kind of put a trick question and said, Will you make it quick. That might be a little bit harder. What I can say is that we are meeting with the Indigenous governments in the multilateral forum which will be happening on June 11th. With the United Nations declaration, we've already formed officials groups with all the Indigenous governments. They've been working in the background. This meeting on June 11th, we'll be bringing forward topics. I believe in our agenda, there's eight topics at the moment.
So once we decide what we're doing with the United Nations declaration, where they feel about it, we need to talk about a consensus on an approach for the NWT.
Mr. Speaker, I've recognized in the year and a half that if you want to do things right with Indigenous governments, it's not appropriate to set our timeline; it's appropriate to work with them on their timeline.
So I don't know how long it will take, Mr. Speaker. But my commitment has been, since the beginning, I've said it over and over at every meeting: I see us as equals at the table, not the GNWT on top. So I will be taking the lead from them on how we move forward with this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
