Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier. Yesterday the Premier and I, with staff members, met with the majority of the leadership in the Sahtu. We talked about the devolution. I appreciate the people in Deline for hosting us and thank the Premier for taking me down to Deline.
I want to ask the Premier, as he heard the leadership speak on devolution and the Sahtu’s position in terms of going forward we want to work together, however there are some serious concerns with the present draft AIP as it stands now. I want to ask the Premier about chapter 22, whether that chapter will be altered or ceased in terms of the benefits. If we sign on and go ahead with this agreement, chapter 22 in our land claim will no longer come into force. This would now be the GNWT’s section. I want to ask the Premier what type of other assurance we have that our land claim will be protected.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for rising on the issue of the agreement-in-principle. We did travel together and took part in the meeting. I must say that I viewed the meeting as a glass half full. I’m not sure if the Member was looking at it as half empty. There are challenges and issues that were raised at the meeting. As we had opportunity to speak with them, we recognized that challenge. There are issues around the agreement-in-principle that as I spoke to the leadership and heard from the leadership that we feel we can work forward on by signing the agreement-in-principle. They feel -- and we respect this -- that they need to bring in two of the other districts to finalize their position. We were asked for support and we look forward to that.
The agreement-in-principle states in many places the protection of land claims and the existing processes that are established. The section that was raised, as the Member has highlighted, was one that is a provision I believe we would have to sit down and talk with them about through this transfer and there would have to be a meeting and agreement in place on how to proceed with that. I’ll have to get more detail on that as we go forward.
I was of the view that glasses are always half full. Certainly our glass would be full if we did sign on to this agreement here.
I want to ask the Premier in terms of us in the Sahtu getting ready. We need to look at some very serious concerns with this draft AIP and how it’s going to affect our land claim and our governments in terms of going forward. The leadership has asked the Premier, and I want to ask the Premier and his Cabinet colleagues, about continuing to move on this file here with the Sahtu to look at another opportunity to have more discussions in the Sahtu with the whole leadership at the table where we can then talk about this AIP in the future with how to proceed going forward, working with the GNWT. We’re looking for funding.
As I responded earlier at the meeting, the leadership there was represented by the Norman Wells group, Deline and Tulita. They asked that we support them in the next meeting. They’re aiming for March 7th and 8th, I understand, to bring Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake into the meeting so they can deal with some of their internal matters around the districts and how they are represented at a regional level. Then I understand they’d be having a decision shortly after that as to signing the agreement-in-principle.
We’re continuing to work with them and, as I stated at the meeting, we’re supportive of their request for additional funds to host that next meeting, so we’re looking at seeing how we could support them in that.
Mr. Speaker, certainly the leadership was happy again to have the Premier there and listen to the people. I want to ask the Premier, in terms of going forward with the Sahtu, they certainly want to make sure the communities were not going to be excluded in the management or administration of public lands and resources and other interests that could be pushed out or overlooked. We want to know if this government here is serious in terms of how do we implement the strong chapter 6 of this agreement where it talks about true partnership, because right now we are not seeing it here. We want to ask the Premier on that issue.
I respect the Members who rise on issues and present a certain case on behalf of their constituents in communities.
In the matter of partnerships and working together, I think we can point quite clearly to a number of big pieces of legislation that this government has been working on that we have worked hand in hand with in developing legislation. I would say this is one of the first for the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Look at the Wildlife Act that’s being worked on, worked in partnership co-writing the legislation. Look at the Species at Risk Act. That’s another piece of legislation that has had partnership, true partnership from Aboriginal organizations in writing that. You look at the Water Strategy that we’ve undergone since we started the regional leadership approach, that they have been working hand in hand with the Government of the Northwest Territories on a Water Strategy for the North.
When you look at section 6 of the agreement-in-principle, there is clear intent that we need to establish the mandates and how we will negotiate with one another in that jurisdictional area of sharing. We’re very open to that and, in fact, that is why it’s in this agreement-in-principle, because we have, in the early days, worked with the Aboriginal groups and governments to put that kind of language in this very AIP. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to look at true partnerships, you know, the Sahtu would have already signed this agreement. We are not there yet. We need to really look at this, look for what it is. Chapter 22 will be impacted in our land claim, those issues that were negotiated in 1993-94.
Mr. Speaker, that’s what I’m asking this government here when you look at this deal, in terms of going forward, we want to ask, again, the Premier here in terms of how do we look at establishing true partnership. It’s not there yet. How do we do that? In chapter 6 it points to where in the protocol agreement, then we can work together in terms of putting this deal satisfactorily to both parties.
I guess I can agree with the Member on the fact that we’re almost there. We’re getting there in the sense that at the recent meeting we had, there are issues that came up around quite a number of issues, whether it’s day-to-day programming we’re involved in as a government, some of the self-government discussions that are ongoing, and then the agreement-in-principle pieces as they stand themselves. As I’ve committed to the leadership in the Sahtu, that we would support them in the next meeting of March 7th and 8th, and would be ready to be in attendance there, as well, if the request was made, when they have the whole group of the Sahtu.
In fact, in further discussions that have happened since then looking at the protocol work that was initially done and the principles of that protocol work and seeing if that’s another avenue that we could initial off as we go towards the signing of the agreement-in-principle in the hopes that they would join us in coming to the tent and help us with this work. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
