Mr. Speaker, the Premier of the Northwest Territories represents our government in many different forums and the mandate to represent us comes from the Members of this Assembly. Recently, I know when I was gone after session, I was surprised to hear of this organization that was putting forward something called the NWT Declaration. I understand that their mandate was to craft a new vision for the Territory.
Mr. Speaker, it hasn’t been abundantly transparent or clear to me exactly what the parameters of this new organization is to craft a new vision for the Northwest Territories. I’ve heard some names of some people who are participating but I have some questions. You know, specifically, I suppose people can get together and do whatever they want, but specifically relevant to our Premier’s involvement in an organization, I do have a few questions. I’d like to know who’s financing the organization. I’d like to know what role our Premier played in the development of the principles of the NWT Declaration. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. A couple of questions there. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll thank the Member for raising that question because it is a good one. It is an area of discussion that’s been held a number of places across our Territory, from youth to seniors to businesses. This is not an organization. There is no company. There is no mandate established. What it was, was an invite to participate that went out to quite a number of people that were invited and those that accepted showed up. I was invited. I originally wasn’t going to go but thought, well, if there’s a discussion about what might happen or what the possibilities are in the Territory, I thought I might as well see what’s being said and who’s attending. So I attended that event, and the discussion that occurred looked at the possibilities of a Territory in the future, in 20 years or more, of what we could be. That’s how that came forward and ideas were put back and forth as to how do we get a discussion going amongst people in the Territory. A number of them decided to launch a Declaration for the NWT.com, and a number have decided to, as well, put ads out there in papers to get discussion going about those seven principle areas. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we all know that it isn’t free to put full-page colour ads in the inside cover of News North, and it isn’t free for a whole bunch of people to get together at Blachford Lake Lodge to launch some new organization to set a new vision and direction for the Northwest Territories. I would like to know who is financing this new forum. How does this differ, in terms of a vision, from our vision as the 16th Assembly for the future of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, there is no organization. My involvement was through the Executive. As I told them there, there are no methods that I could bring from a Cabinet or the Assembly because we had not had that discussion. The area of involvement from other companies, I’m not sure if the other people who participated paid their own way to the meeting as well. I didn’t ask about that. I just ensured that from our part that it was as if there’s any discussion happening across the Northwest Territories around matters of what we could be or what our possibilities are, I’d like to be involved and I would, from the Executive side, ensure that we paid our ticket and not be held accountable to anybody else outside of our environment.
The issue of where they get their mandate from or those issues, again, it was a group of individuals who came together -- some had business, some youth, some had previous government experience -- to discuss the possibilities of the North. In a sense, there is no mandate that this goes to, because it is something for discussion.
Now, how it links to our vision is up to us here in this Assembly. If we would like to see what this declaration can mean for us or, in fact, I think we could look at our vision and goals and almost parallel them with that of what came out in the seven principles and have that discussion about what could be and how do we align ourselves or position ourselves to enhance what we could be as a Territory. I think that’s the important one, is how do we take it up, how do the governing bodies of this Territory take this and make this work. That piece of work that was done is one for just discussion. Now I think it is up to us and I think here’s an opportunity for us to say and look at let’s take this energy and let’s tap into it and see where we can go with it as a Legislative Assembly and move forward on that basis if we’re willing. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m still not entirely clear what our Premier’s role was in this. This was an exclusive meeting. It wasn’t open to the public. I wasn’t invited. No aboriginal organizations were invited. At a remote location that people couldn’t get to, behind closed doors. I’m just trying to sort of get to, you know, the bottom of our involvement in this organization. Like I said, people can do what they want, but to the question again: Very high price tag on setting up a website like that and doing all that expensive advertising -- who’s paying for this? It’s a bit seemingly secretive. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we’ve lost the message in the sense of what it was all about. It was getting a discussion about what we could be in the Northwest Territories. Could we have a diversified economy? Could we have respect for our cultures across the Territories? Should we have the best education system across this country? Can we have a clean, affordable, abundant energy to help reduce the cost of living in the Territories? Things of that nature. Things that I think we can look at and say almost every government, whether a municipal government, to a certain degree, to the territorial governments, whether it’s this government or past governments, have wrestled with these subject matters. Again, there was a press conference that was held from the group, those that could attend. BHP was there. There were a number of other businesspeople there and individuals who are part of the ones that could make it and spoke to the issue. We were involved in some of our own work so I wasn’t able to attend there.
The issue, though, is one of my involvement was there, as I heard them, to listen to what they were saying, well, as a GNWT we’ve done our work and this is where we focused our work in those areas, but that’s to the extent. They don’t have a mandate to go and send somebody else off to do any kind of work. It is the matter of having the discussion happening and I think this is where we plugged in, is where do we want to see this, or should we just let people continue to talk about. But I think it’s incumbent on us, as we look at our vision and goals, to see how we’re doing the work. I think, as I said earlier, we could almost take every one of our goals as the 16th Assembly, and line them up with the discussion that happened there. I think we’re already showing that we are doing a lot of the work that was discussed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that Mayor Gord Van Tighem was in attendance, as well, and has reported subsequently back to his council as to his involvement and so on. So I hope that the Premier has a good and solid understanding of the fact that when he goes out and attends a forum like this as the Premier, his mandate comes from us and that we need to be in the loop as to what’s going on. I can only assume time hasn’t really permitted yet that he might have actually told us what had happened, but I was a bit surprised about it and to read it in the paper. But does the Premier concur that his mandate to participate in forums such as this comes from this House and we should be fully apprised of what’s going on and have appropriate input? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, myself and the Minister, we get our mandate from this Assembly, our vision and goals. I must say, when these opportunities exist and there’s an invite, I will take that invite. As I have, for example, I was invited to the Akaitcho leaders to talk at a workshop. The first time a Premier of the Northwest Territories was invited. I took that opportunity because that directly aligns with some of the work we’re doing around regional leaders and so on. But with this group, yes, I had opportunity to address it shortly for a small amount of time when we had our Caucus meeting when we met at Blachford Lake and was hoping to have further discussions on that piece, but again, time permitting wasn’t long enough. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
