Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
I'd like to hand it to the director.
Thank you. I'll turn it over to the director.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the start of the program was mid year, and we also had the evacuation and the election, so hence not all of the budgeted allocations were spent. For 20232024, we are carrying a surplus. The surplus is to be spent by September 30th, and we're hopeful to have all of the allocations from the surplus amounts completed by then. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's good to know. I just want us to do everything we can to make sure that there's tons of work to be done out there and tons of organizations doing this kind of work, so I just want to make sure that the dots are being connected and we're getting all this money out the door. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Any further questions? Okay, I'm going to continue on. No further questions.
Please turn to page 134. The Executive and Indigenous Affairs, directorate, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $9,457,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to the council's office beginning on page 138 with information item on page 140. Are there any questions?
Seeing no questions. I'll continue on. Oh, sorry. Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Looking back at directorate or when we go back and we look at all the staff that's in the Premier's office and executive and Indigenous affairs office, the organizational chart and account structural chart. I have people asking me why is the department so heavy on like, top heavy, and can some of those positions like, do they really need all of those positions in that office? Or and can some of that money be used in well, they're just saying it's top heavy. And that's what I wanted to say, it's top heavy and we could use money from those positions in other programs that we need money in our communities for. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. So in this activity that we're discussing, Executive Council offices, there's the Ministers' offices and there's the Premier's offices. I would say that I could use a couple more Ministers to distribute the workload. So it could even get a little more top heavy in this area. But, you know, that's a constant criticism of government, that it's top heavy. We always hear it. But I have to say that in this area here, I think it's probably a little thin. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you. That's all I have to say for that. Thank you.
Thank you. Before I continue on, Members, the Speaker has advised that he wishes to reenter the Chamber to put committee into extended hours. I will ask the Minister to return to his seat. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses out of the chambers. Members, I will suspend Committee of the Whole.
SHORT RECESS
Thank you, colleagues. I was a bad Speaker, and I left you guys without authorization to stay extended hours. So, I know, bad me.
By the authority given to me as Speaker under Rule 2.2(4), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hours of adjournment to consider the business of the House.
And I will turn it back to the Member from Tu NedheWiilideh, back to the chair.
SHORT RECESS
Thank you. I will continue on. Members, I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Minister, please return to the witness table, and sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Members, we will resume with the Executive Council offices in the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. And do any Members have any further questions? Any further questions from Members? Seeing no hands, I'll continue on.
Executive and Indigenous Affairs, Executive Council office, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $3,951,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to the Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs on page 141 with information items on page 143 and 144. Are there any questions? Yes, I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is more of, again, a business plan question. On page 22 no, that's not true. That's not the entire 89 of the business plan, it speaks to EIA's federal engagement approach. I'm curious what work intergovernmental affairs has done thus far on the federal engagement approach for the 20th Assembly and what timelines we're looking at to see that here in this House? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. There won't be a document; there won't be a plan to be tabled in the House. We are developing an approach to working with the federal government, but we have too many strategies, too many frameworks that we spend a lot of time developing but not enough time implementing, and so we are implementing an approach to federal engagement. And we have the mandate done, hopefully the budget will be passed soon, and hopefully I'll be heading to Ottawa right after this so that we can begin those engagements. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister speak to whether his Cabinet will be using the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework again in this Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Yes, thank you. So the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework, it's actually a federal document. We think it's a good document. We just need some implementation from the federal government. There are pieces here and there, but we really want to see them invest in the spirit of that document. Perhaps I can get the deputy minister to speak some more on this. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Minister mentioned, the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework is a federal strategic policy document. To date, we've been waiting to see some financial contributions to bring that document to life. So it does come up on just about every during every meeting that territorial government officials have with their federal counterparts. So I think it's fair to say that it will continue to have life during our discussions in the coming years.
And with respect to the approach that the Premier was discussing, we really are trying to employ disciplined approach focus and activate the public service to work effectively with their federal counterparts to prepare for political conversations that can be successful. So I think that's a basic principle of what we're looking to achieve over the next three and a half years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, really, more a comment than a question well, actually, I'll put a question in there just for kicks. That's good to hear. But fundamentally I think it would give some comfort and understanding on this side of the House of how you wish to strategize generally. If there is not a document to be tabled, perhaps a briefing could be arranged with AOC. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. I would be more than happy to brief the committee. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll move to Member for Great Slave.
I'm all right for now, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The next Member on the list I have on the list is from the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so I'm going to go back to the questions I was asking earlier as the Premier rightfully pointed out I was in the wrong section. I'm still in the process of familiarizing myself with the great machine that is our government.
So, yeah, back to that question, I think I'd repose it. I'm just looking for kind of some explanation as to what the government's goals are for selfgovernment and Indigenous rights agreements over the term of this Assembly. You know, publishing updates to the GNWT principles and interests just does not seem like a very ambitious goal, and so I'm kind of looking to the Premier to indicate how we are challenging the status quote with this item.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it's you know, in the last government the mandate commitments were to settle land claims. Well, that's just what we're supposed to be doing. And so the way to do that is look at the negotiations, figure out what the issues are, figure out where the GNWT perhaps needs to change its position or align itself with an Indigenous government to work together to help change Canada's position, and then make those changes in the negotiating mandates. And that may be uncomfortable. That may be a departure from the way thing have been done in the past. But we need to push the envelope because we heard comments earlier about the money that is brought into the territory, the capacity that is built when claims are settled. That really is I think the key to supporting the regions and bringing wealth into the territory and spreading it out around the territory. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I do appreciate the Premier providing that clarity because I think it'll help the public kind of better understand what we're trying to achieve. And maybe if we just push a little bit, I mean, does the Premier kind of have any updates for committee on whether there's any indication that we will see a settled claim within the term of this Assembly? Are we moving forward, or are things currently stalled? I'm kind of curious to hear some more comment on that.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. And there are some promising tables. Hope to see some things settled during this government. I don't really want to get into specifics. As they are in negotiations, I don't want to poison the well as they say, but and the thing about negotiations that I've learned is sometimes you start a term and the ones you're furthest ahead on are the ones you're the furthest behind on at the end of the term. And it's things that are completely out of our control. An Indigenous government might want to just take some more time at that particular point in the process, and we have to sit there and wait, which is what needs to happen. So while I want to move as quickly as we can on these files, that being said we're only one of three parties at the table. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And that is understandable, so I won't continue to push on that one. But just moving one item down on the same page in the business plan, exploring options to support economic reconciliation. Certainly, I was I had the privilege of sitting in on the Indigenous economic forum that occurred in April, and I was very excited by what I was hearing there. And I just note that the again, like, speaking to measures and targets, the measures that we have here are a number of funding agreements. And I don't think we've really identified a target in terms of what are we trying to achieve with those funding agreements, because we could have a lot of funding agreements and not really be achieving the aims that we're looking to. So I guess I have two questions on this one.
One is whether the Council of Leaders was approached and spoken to about this specific item and given the opportunity to provide some opinion as to what we should be trying to achieve together and whether we have whether the department has any comments on sort of development of targets recognizing what we discussed earlier that, you know, I do recognize the business plans were put together quite quickly, but I would like to hear from the department as to kind of what they're working in terms of fleshing out this idea. Thanks.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. When we talk about economic reconciliation, we need to approach that from a number of fronts. We are working on an Indigenous procurement policy. We do have agreements such as with the economic agreement with the Tlicho the exact name escapes me at this moment. We are also working on the UNDRIP Implementation Act action plan. And I expect that there would be economic aspects identified in there. We are working with the Council of Leaders and the economy has been flagged as one of the major issues that the Indigenous governments want to address this term. And so I'm excited about that. And so at the upcoming meeting, we're going to be having some indepth discussions about that and how we can work together going forward. There's a recognition across the board by GNWT, by Indigenous governments, by the general public that we are in a transition phase right now with the diamond mines maturing and that we need to ensure that we have opportunities in the future. And so like I always say, we can't do that alone, we need to work with the Indigenous governments, and that's the plan. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll leave with a comment, and that is just that, you know, I see the business plan as a live document. I know that there's going to be updates brought to it every year. And so I just hope that Cabinet and the Premier can kind of work with the Council of Leaders, identify some targets that we're going to work towards so we can be focused in implementation of our priorities. And I'll just keep hammering back on that focus item we if we're not focused, if we're trying to do everything, I think it's going to be much harder to achieve our goals. So that's my comments for now, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much on this section.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too want to add and support the engagements both at the federal level and the territorial level with the other Indigenous organizations. An economic reconciliation is a common drive. One standard chapter within these claims that could be allowed to build on so you have a common ground of engagement to economic reconciliation would be that permitted activities within these different land claims, which allows expenditure of capital. And it could be done through a copartnership arrangement. So that door can be opened to do a number of things for economic reconciliation. It could allow the claimant corporations to meet this government halfway through various initiatives. So I would suggest that the department familiarize themselves with the chapter on permitted activities. So that's more of a recommendation or a suggestion.
My question is related to the Ottawa office. And what are the intentions of utilizing the office in Ottawa to its fullest potential and help mitigate or bridge the gap with federal engagements with this organization as well as joint cooperative organizations with the claimant corporations? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
