Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Premier and is in light of my Member’s statement and specifically the lack of consultation that seems to be taking place between the Dene leadership.
I’ve received a phone call from Billy Erasmus, who put a formal request into the Government of the Northwest Territories to host a Dene leadership meeting, which includes all the Dene leaders throughout Denendeh, regarding the Mackenzie Valley on this issue that are before us on devolution. The Dene people are the ones that are most impacted by this decision and we do have treaty obligations, whether it’s from the old treaties 8 and 11 or the modern day treaties.
I’d like to ask the Premier what it’s going to take for this government to assist those groups to get to the table, have their issues put forward, and when are we going to hear them out so we can understand where they’re coming from by allowing these meetings to take place.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must take exception to the manner the Member raised in his Member’s statement about how this government has been pathetic in reaching out. The fact is, during the life of this government, the 16th Assembly, we set up the regional leaders approach that had all the regional leaders, presidents, grand chiefs at the table to help set the discussion about what we share and how we do work and things. At the table we also recognize that we’re not always going to agree on subject matters that come forward.
In fact, this agreement-in-principle that the Member is referring to bring people back to the table on, if you look at chapter 4, the general provisions of the devolution agreement, from 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8 all talk about Aboriginal rights and interests and how this government and the federal government and the parties that sign onto this would work in ensuring that those rights are protected throughout the Northwest Territories in this devolution process.
Aside from that on the specific question of support for Aboriginal governments, we have supported Aboriginal governments by providing funding directly to the regions to take part in devolution discussions.
Further to that, the meetings in the Sahtu, for example, we have supported those meetings with funding, along with attending those meetings and will continue to do that.
As we all know, all groups are not part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum which some groups are not taking part in. Yet the Dene leadership forum includes all the Dene leadership throughout the Northwest Territories, which allows them to have that discussion among themselves for those groups that are not part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum but do take part in those discussions.
I’d just like to ask the Premier, since he made a reference to the wording in the agreement under the land claims agreement, which is protected under the Canadian Constitution, it’s pretty clear that the Government of the Northwest Territories shall involve the Aboriginal governments in developing implementation of a northern accord agreement on oil and gas which is negotiated in accordance with the element of the land claims agreement. I’d just like to know, if you have a constitutional agreement which clearly stipulates that you shall involve them, and then on one hand you’re saying, well, if you’re not at the table, you can’t talk, I’d like to know what we’re going to do to have an inclusive system that includes First Nations leaders to have that discussion either amongst themselves to develop their positions and bring them forward so the Government of the Northwest Territories and the people of the Northwest Territories can see exactly what the First Nations positions are.
The process we have used has been absolutely inclusive. In fact, it’s through the modern treaties, as the Member has referred to them as, the land claims and self-government discussions and the ones that are in negotiations that set up the regional leaders process.
Every one of the regions has been a part of that process. It’s been at those regions, those regional leaders, the grand chiefs and the presidents that have said they’re the decision-makers that affect their claims and the people they represent, not the Dene Nation national chief. So we’ve worked with those regional leaders through this process.
In fact, through the Northern Leaders’ Forum, which is a side to the regional leaders table, Mr. Erasmus asked to be a part of that and I took it to the regional leaders. They accepted that he could be a part of that process as an observer, because, again, they held that right to be the decision-makers. So we’re working with the decision-makers.
This agreement-in-principle, clearly with the involvement of those who wanted to be at the table and chose to be at the table helped with the wording in this around those protections, and about the sharing of authorities, and about the resource revenue sharing piece. These are included in this agreement-in-principle that we’re working on and going forward towards negotiations on, because we had involvement in the early days and we’ve left it open to come to the table and be a part of those decisions, be a part of that discussion and help set the future course of the Northwest Territories.
I’ll try to get back to my original question. Will the government consider funding the meeting coming up next week between the Dene Nation and the Dene leadership so that they can basically develop their position, see exactly what their issues are, and format that discussion and make their positions clear to the people of the Northwest Territories and the Government of the Northwest Territories?
The groups have been involved from the earliest days, right from 2002 forward up until the protocol work we were doing. All groups were involved in that. We looked at the request from the Dene Nation, reviewed it to see how we could look at doing this work and reaching out, and the decision was to work with the regional approach that we put together at the start of this Assembly and we’re continuing to do that. We have contacted the Dene Nation and informed them our approach will be with the regional and community leaders.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again I’d like to ask the Minister, there’s been a lot of push by the Premier to go community by community. I think before you do that, you’re undermining the Aboriginal leadership by doing that and not recognizing that they are elected officials with just as much authority as we have. I’d like to know if we are undermining the Aboriginal leadership without having that dialogue with them first, before we go into the communities. The same thing applies to ourselves as MLAs and Members of this House. What are we doing to get those Aboriginal leaders, show them some respect, and treat them as real leaders in the Northwest Territories and quit ignoring them?
The Member continues to stand up in this House and, in a sense, show disrespect to the process that we have put in place through regional leaders. The Member has at least in his mail copies of the letter and correspondence that we’ve sent to regional leaders to say we are working with them going forward with the regional leaders, so the grand chiefs, the presidents and the community leaders, the chiefs from their communities. We’ve invited them to give us times when they would like to meet and discuss how we proceed forward. So we’ve communicated on that behalf and await responses. In fact, we’ve acted on the first response we had from the Sahtu and the door is open for those who want to come forward and have these discussions on how to move forward.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
