Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier in regard to my Member’s statement and the Premier’s sessional statement.
There are certain sections of the agreement where the government shall involve the Gwich’in in any devolution process. I’d just like to ask the Premier: exactly what consultation has taken place today with the aboriginal governments in regard to this proposal?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Mr. Speaker, as the Government of the Northwest Territories 16th Assembly took office, we set up a new arrangement with regional leadership. We hold four meetings a year where the regional leadership as well as the Government of Northwest Territories can put items on the agenda.
We have been having discussions at that table about devolution and resource revenue sharing, and again this opportunity came up. I made a number of calls, because of the short time frame, to try to get as much of the aboriginal leadership as possible up to speed as to the letter I was presenting. In fact, I did speak with the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. I have correspondence with the president on, for example, the Mackenzie Valley Highway right up to the coast, so we have had a discussion.
We haven’t had a chance to meet face to face about the meeting with the Prime Minister and where we may be able to go from here. We are starting that process, and our next meeting, I believe, will be late November.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Premier: exactly what is the price tag on this proposal, and what are we are talking about? Are we talking about a billion dollars or more? I think the number for the Mackenzie highway is somewhere in the range of $6 billion. What is the price tag on this proposal?
Mr. Speaker, the Mackenzie Valley Highway is not $6 billion, if I heard the Member correctly. We know there have been groups doing their work. For example, the Department of Transportation used, I believe, $700 million as the target; that is an old number. We know that the Mackenzie Aboriginal Corporation did some work. They talked about $1.7 billion, I believe, in that neighbourhood; that’s their number.
We haven’t progressed to that and looked at those dollar figures. What we’ve been working on is coming up with a framework that would see a continued partnership between the federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories: taking the revenues they take out of the Territories, and royalties, and putting them back into the Northwest Territories. So it’s a framework right now. We’re going to have more discussions, and we’re going to see if it even goes any further beyond having a commitment for more discussion.
Mr. Speaker, one of the most lucrative resources out there that the federal government owns is the Norman Wells oil field. They own one-third of the field. I would like to ask the Premier: has he discussed the one-third ownership of the Norman Wells oil field and basically used those revenues they receive from the ownership side of the field to put into these types of capital infrastructure funding projects? Has that been part of the discussions with the federal government?
Mr. Speaker, again, we have not had any real discussions with the federal government. I put a proposal on the table for establishing a framework, and that’s the area we’re discussing right now.
Prior to that, probably shortly after we took office and realized that the deal that was on the table was not going to be satisfactory for us here in the Northwest Territories, we started looking at options. We know the federal government has always considered Norman Wells an equity, not a royalty. We started tracking that to see if it, in fact, would be a way of trying to look at how the revenues can be transferred back to the North. It is part of a potential solution, and that has been on the table for quite some time in trying to gauge the federal government in that area.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Mr. Speaker, in response to an earlier question, the Premier mentioned that he did contact a few aboriginal leaders. I am wondering when he is going to contact all aboriginal leaders and, more importantly, have a briefing with Members on this side of the House so we can get an understanding of what’s in the proposal, what is being stated, so we will get a commitment from the Premier on when this will take place.
Mr. Speaker, the fact is that I’ve given correspondence to the Members that gives details of what framework proposal has been put forward to the federal government. I sent that package, as well, to the regional aboriginal leadership. We are going to have our next meeting with the regional aboriginal leadership at the end of November, and we will be able to have a much more in-depth discussion in that area.
I have already committed to Members, and I believe we do have some time still set aside, to go over this item with committee members. Again, we’ll follow through with that commitment.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
