Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier of the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier regarding the draft Devolution and Resource Revenue Sharing Agreement-in-Principle in terms of allowing the people of the Northwest Territories ample time to look at this deal. As has been noted by CBC, parts of the deal are out there. Can we have our constituents in the regions look at this deal to see if it’s something they want to join with the Government of the Northwest Territories to initial at the start of the negotiations? I want to ask the Premier if his Cabinet has considered bringing this out to the public to have a public debate and to see if we are all in one on this matter.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have, as a government, used a process that is well established and one that is working with the parties at the table and the aboriginal organizations that have been a part of this process. We are awaiting their input with the joint letter that went out to them. We’ll have to decide at that point how we proceed as the GNWT.
I’m asking the Premier in terms of some innovation and thinking outside the box regarding the established guidelines and policies to bring this significant deal to the peoples’ front doors and asking if this is a deal that we want to sign on with everybody in the Northwest Territories. I have the K’asho leadership coming here today and I’m meeting with them after this House session here today. I need to let the K’asho leadership know. What should I tell them about this deal?
We have 13 days, the Premier has indicated, to get responses from the aboriginal leaders; 13 days to tell my leaders what to do for our children’s children on this significant deal here and in terms of signing on with the government. Can the Premier allow the people of the Northwest Territories the dignity and respect to debate this in an open forum?
The aboriginal representatives received a draft AIP in September. They at that point were hoping and I’m sure that they’ve had their discussions or are in the process of having their discussions with their elected representatives of their representative organizations and will be able to respond back. We’re awaiting that response. We’re trying to honour, much like at the regional leaders table, the role of governments and have that interaction government to government as we have been told so many times. We’re awaiting the regional organizations’ responses to the letter that’s been sent to them.
The time frame for the aboriginal leaders to respond, again I would wait until the end of the month to see. It would have to be on Halloween Day, too, so we’ll see what type of a response we’re going to get.
I want to ask because right now I’m not hearing the aboriginal governments jumping up and down saying “sign here.” I’m hearing different views as to this agreement and it seems that we don’t have much support from the majority of aboriginal governments. I want to ask the Premier again if this is the type of sentiments and feelings out there at the end of the month, would we as the Assembly make the decision to initial or not this agreement?
Mr. Speaker, the work that we have done and this draft AIP that has been sent out has been many years in the making. In fact, the specific work on this area started as far back as 2001. The previous government along with four of the groups initialled off and sent it in. That work has been the foundation, the basis of the work that has gone forward. So there has been much involvement in that process and as our process is established and works, before I can sign off on that I would have to go to my Cabinet colleagues to see their input on that. As well, as we do in practice, we seek the input of Members on that before coming up to that decision point. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. A final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Premier and Mr. Krutko have exchanged on some of the history that went on with the devolution and resource revenue sharing beyond 1988 and from there today where we have an initial agreement that we’re discussing whether we sign or not sign, Mr. Speaker, in terms of that history it also shows that the government has also changed its views in terms of the majority of aboriginal governments on board to the full support of them to some support. Now it seems like we have a government-to-government relationship and I’m afraid that this initial agreement will not recognize the aboriginal governments as being party to this initial agreement. I think there are some significant changes that need to be made, if I read it closely enough, in terms of moving forward.
I want to ask the Premier in terms of allowing the people of the Northwest Territories the opportunity to say this deal is good for us or not. Will the Premier, again, commit to some type of open forum for debate on the initial AIP?
The work that we have done and we’re at now, we’ll be facing a decision as the 16th Legislative Assembly whether we go to the next level of negotiations. As pointed out, even the language that’s there before protects the aboriginal rights, and it’s our role as a public government to ensure that the rights of the public as a whole of the Northwest Territories are also represented.
It’s been through the many years that this work has been done and we count on the input of Members who are representatives of the many constituencies across the North to voice their input, as we do commonly practice in our system of government. So we will go through that process. We will have to decide on a decision in the future as to do we make this and go to the next level and begin those final set of negotiations moving the file forward. At this point that’s where we’re at. We want to wait and see that response to the letters that have gone out and then, as I said to Members, we’ll be discussing as our process is established and seeking input from the Members as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
