Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, in terms of the questions that Mr. Krutko, the Mackenzie Delta MLA, has been asking in regard to the outfitters. The bigger picture here that I want to ask this Minister is confirming that the government is taking all the appropriate steps to ensure that full legal compliance with the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement in regard to this issue and probably to other issues that are going to be looked at.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are taking the steps, attempting to take the steps to be in full compliance, recognizing that this particular licence issue has brought to light the complexity of the right of first refusal in two jurisdictions where there’s an overlap of the licence. I’ve committed in writing to the Member for Sahtu to the process I just outlined to the Member for Mackenzie Delta of what we intend to do over the coming months to try to remedy this situation. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, certainly the Member for the Mackenzie Delta has brought some issues here. Mr. Speaker, I’ve been reviewing the access agreement between the outfitters and the respective land claim organizations and there is certainly a lot of compliance that the outfitters have not done in the Sahtu region. So that’s why I asked this question.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask the Minister again for his definition in terms of first rights of refusal, you have two constitutionally protected land claim agreements called modern treaties, they both have right of first refusal clauses. Who, I guess, within his department is saying we should look at the Gwich’in, because the majority of the outfitting licence is operating in the Gwich’in, or we look at the Sahtu where a small percentage of the outfitter licence is operating? How can the Minister, again, by the definition, say, well, we’ll look over one agreement in terms of another agreement and say, okay, that will also apply in the Sahtu? I ask the Minister again in terms of that definition, could he help me with how did he get to that and talk to the people?
The Member has laid out the legal challenge that we have before us where you have two competing rights of first refusal and a licence holder and a licence that overlaps in the two regions. We have, as I’ve indicated, people in our department, we are working with the Department of Justice, we are working with the aboriginal governments, we’re going to talk to the stakeholders and the management boards about how do we deal with this situation that in all probability was not anticipated as these agreements were all signed off. Thank you.
When I was with the Sahtu Tribal Council as chief negotiator and negotiated these agreements in good faith with Canada, the GNWT, and certainly we fought hard with the outfitters in terms of these rights here. So, Mr. Speaker, I look forward to discussion with the Minister on how to resolve this particular legal issue here.
I would ask the Minister, can he confirm that any changes to the ownership by an outfitter requires that a new outfitter’s licence be applied for?
Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the detail that the Member has referred to, but I will, once again, commit that we want to honour all our requirements and our obligations in this process within the land claim acts and within all the policies and regulations that govern us, to make sure that we avoid this kind of circumstance in the future. We’ve indicated we have some work to do and we are going to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly the Member for Mackenzie Delta and probably myself look forward to working with the Minister on the new Wildlife Act. Certainly, in between now and then, as the Member for Mackenzie Delta has alluded to in terms of some of the changes that we could foresee in terms of working with the land claim organizations, these are the aboriginal governments for our region.
In this issue here with the outfitter, would the Minister be committed to coming to sit down with the two respective land claim organizations and look at the issues that we need to resolve? How do we protect the constitutionally protected document in terms of honouring the agreement and stating that the agreement as it was intended to be is protected by the Constitution?
Mr. Speaker, I have stated in the House that we have committed and initiated a process involving other government departments, the aboriginal governments, management boards and other stakeholders over the coming months to put this issue on the table, peel this complex onion to see where it takes us and look at what happened, what steps we need to take to resolve the circumstance and the situation to ensure we comply with the land claim agreements and all our other obligations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
