Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In a similar vein as my colleague Mr. Ramsay who was raising concerns about what’s been decided or discussed about this bill presented by our Member of Parliament, which is C-530. I’m not concerned about the autonomy of the Member of Parliament’s issue of being able to advocate things he thinks are important. That’s not the issue at hand. My concern is, although I agree with his spirit and intent, what has he done to communicate this particular issue with this particular government, which is accountable to the Members of this House and to the members of the public. Mr. Speaker, in short, has the Finance Minister received any official correspondence from the Member of Parliament on this particular issue, and has he taken it to Cabinet for any official decision and direction, and how has he communicated that to the Members of this House? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member of Parliament indicated to us what his intention was, and as I indicated to the Member for Kam Lake, on the 20th of October the Premier wrote to the Member indicating to him that we had our own process underway with the federal government that we were fully engaged in and on a government-to-government basis with ourselves and the federal government as well as the other two territories to sort out our borrowing limit. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, clearly I want to say I’m not against the spirit and the intent, but it seems to be a real communication problem here. Mr. Speaker, I can’t imagine such a significant change in the way the government can operate its business to the people of the Northwest Territories. I can’t imagine such a significant change in the way we can borrow money and put risk at hand here, that this government wouldn’t communicate some of these intentions, either the Premier’s position, interest or whatnot, to the Member of Parliament, and he wouldn’t reach out to Members of this House and express that this is happening. So, Mr. Speaker, it’s a bit of a surprise.
Would the Minister of Finance agree to table the Premier’s letter before this House or leave it up to us to access it through an ATIP request? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have indicated to the Member of Parliament that the processes we are involved in as a government with the federal government, which is basically the status quo that the Members are aware of, is the position of this government. The Member of Parliament’s intent to proceed how he sees fit through a process that they control may take years is his business. We have stated clearly what the position of the Government of the Northwest Territories is. I will check to see if we can forward the Premier’s letter to committee for their perusal. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my frustration is not directed at the Finance Minister, but the fact is this does not represent a unified voice of this Assembly. We hear how hard that this government wants to work together on a devolution agreement, bring everybody together, work together on the same page. Well, this bill seems to derail that. Again, I know it’s the Member of Parliament’s business to do what he feels fit, but you would think that the communications works… If you know something so important, why didn’t you tell this side of the House, because it makes everyone over here look bad that we don’t know what’s happening, and does the government support it? Mr. Speaker, has this Cabinet taken an official position on this particular case and why have they not spoken to the Members of this House such as Regular Members? Thank you.
We have taken an official position on this. We’ve indicated to the Member in writing that we are committed to the process that’s underway with the federal Department of Finance and the other two territories. It’s clear for us. Now, if the Members are suggesting somehow that we should be out doing some kind of legwork for the Member of Parliament, then we can have that discussion. We were clear that the issue was dealt with. The Member of Parliament has a track that he’s on but we’re not involved in that. We have a process with the federal government and the other two territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact is we have a lot of infrastructure issues and we could go on at length about highway needs, hydro needs. We could go on about a lot of things that are very important to the future of the Northwest Territories. Yes, the spirit and the intent may work to accomplish this, which I’m not against. The fact is it seems like there’s a huge gap in the communication, Mr. Speaker. Clearly, to the Minister of Finance, I think this should be a Finance Ministers’ discussion or Premier to Prime Minister discussion in Ottawa, but not an MP forcing this issue to be discussed.
Mr. Speaker, does the Minister of Finance see risk taken to our negotiations to this government trying to increase our borrowing limit to what’s considered a responsible level? Does he see that this is now going to cause problems? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have a clear process with the federal government that we, collectively, have agreed on, and we are confident that that will allow us to achieve the goals to look at our circumstances as it pertains to our borrowing limit, come up with a result, hopefully, in the next few months to resolve those issues for the three territories. I don’t know the exact timing and sequence of events for Private Member’s Bills, but what little I know tells me that you have almost as much of a chance of winning the lottery as you do getting a Private Member’s Bill through the House of Parliament in Ottawa. The Member of Parliament has chosen a course of action, trying to advance what he thinks are northern interests, but we have our process and we’ve taken our position and it’s clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
