Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been noted that the draft AIP has been posted on CBC for the whole public to take their own view and to have their own interpretation of the AIP. Mr. Speaker, I was meeting with the K’asho leadership in Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope and, Mr. Speaker, much to my surprise, they were in shock and awe in terms of the agreement. So I wanted to ask the Premier if he can advise the House as to who and when the decision was made to exclude the K’asho Gotine in the process of entering into bilateral negotiations with Canada.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been no decision on our part to exclude anyone. In fact, the process that we’ve entered into through the regional leaders table is to set up a regional leaders table specifically. So the Sahtu has been included. We don’t go to the Sahtu to say how they then work from the region down to their community levels, like we don’t do with the Gwich’in or the Inuvialuit or the Dehcho or any of the groups. We worked at that table to have the regional leaders bring their issues to the table.
This agreement that is out there has been worked on since 2001. We realize that much of the leadership changes from time to time. In this case, a letter has gone out by the chief negotiators to the regional leaders to seek their continued involvement in the next phase of discussions. Thank you.
Thank you. In terms of the participation in the negotiations, well, we could certainly have a long debate on that on the definition of participating and negotiating. What we see from this point is that Canada and the GNWT are excluding the aboriginal governments. I want to ask the Premier, can he advise how the GNWT has met its obligations to consult, as defined in the Sahtu claim under section 2.(a)(b)(c) that the Sahtu aboriginal governments in determining the fiscal formula in the AIP.
The process that we’ve gone down, in fact, on the basis of the AIP started off fundamentally in 2001, has worked through, in fact, in the 15th Assembly, four groups signed on with the government-of-the-day to forward that draft on to Canada and the Sahtu was included in that signing at that time. We, in the 16th Assembly, had halted the process to start the regional leaders table to try to build a more common approach, and when the re-engagement happened with the federal government, there was a number of technical sessions and negotiations that were involved at the regional level process and the staff they had brought to the table.
So we’re, again, waiting for a response to the chief negotiators’ letters to the regional leaders seeking their continued involvement in this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Time for question period has expired; however, I’ll allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently the Sahtu Secretariat and Canada resolved a legal matter involving Canada’s obligations to consult with landowners when issuing prospecting permits in the Sahtu Settlement Area. Can the Premier advise if the GNWT has assessed the risk of single legal actions if the GNWT continues with the execution of the draft AIP?
Once again, we are awaiting the response from the chief negotiators’ letter to the regional governments, aboriginal governments and organizations to seek their continued involvement in the final phase of negotiations. At that point there will be a decision as to whether there’s a go forward. So this is all hypothetical about what may or may not happen. We’re waiting and we’re honouring the process and waiting for the response of the regional organizations and governments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier is correct in terms of how he’s waiting for the leadership from the Northwest Territories to determine a go or no go, or a deal or no deal. I want to ask the Premier about what I’ve been hearing from our leadership that doesn’t seem to have much support. What can we do in terms of making sure that we do have a strong, northern aboriginal leadership? We know we want this deal, but right now it seems like there’s not much support, from where I’m standing, about proceeding any further with this draft AIP.
The draft AIP that’s been sent out to the aboriginal governments and organizations for their input has been done because the mandates of the chief negotiators have breached. It is up to the governments to decide what the next steps are and we’re in that process of making those decisions, waiting for the input of the aboriginal organizations and governments for their response to the chief negotiators’ letters. We’ll have to decide what the process is going forward from there, and when it comes to some of the issues that I believe are outstanding are ones that I believe would be identified through the bilateral that would occur between the aboriginal governments and the GNWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 8, written questions. The honourable member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return back on the orders of the day to item 5.
---Unanimous consent granted
