Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of ENR. Mr. Speaker, as I said in the House yesterday, I just returned from Deline where they had a traditional hand game tournament. In the tournament, they had two teams on both sides. They also had a shooter that shoots for the team in terms of guessing where the stick is in the player’s hand. I want to ask the Minister regarding naming a shooter or an official of ENR. The chief of the Yellowknives Dene says he is the man who is going to talk, not the Dene Nation president. It’s the chief himself. So I want to ask the Minister who is the Minister who will sit down with the chief to hammer out this deal?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we sort out who, in fact, we’re going to be dealing directly with the authorities, be it the chief or the Dene Nation. We will deal with this and we will continue to deal with it through the two most senior officials in the department, both the deputy minister as well as the assistant deputy minister. Thank you.
Once this has been confirmed, as I said I just had a discussion with the chief of the Yellowknives and he is the man. He is the head of his people here and, like I said, they have different players on both sides. Sometimes they cross boundaries and that’s part of the whole issue here with the meetings. The Minister said the deputy minister and the assistant deputy minister on the GNWT’s side. If that can be confirmed today, can they have negotiations or have the meetings hopefully between now and Friday. Would that happen?
Those realities are currently in place. The contact has been made. We’re waiting for the clarification. The deputy minister, of course, has been on top of this along with his very able assistant deputy minister to stand ready to try to resolve this. We’ll see what happens by the end of the week, but we hope we’ll be able to move this process forward quickly. Thank you.
I look forward to some good announcements hopefully in the next couple of days. I want to ask the Minister in terms of the meat that was seized from the hunters by the ENR officers in terms of how that was distributed to the Yellowknives Dene or to the public.
Thank you. You are kind of going in to a different line of questioning here, but I’ll allow the Minister to answer. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The meat was distributed according to the very clear detailed order by the justice of the peace. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
