Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This House, in November, passed a motion and it was regarding missing and murdered Aboriginal women. That was passed on November 4th. It was a motion that I’m very appreciative that we had great support from this House. The reason I’m calling upon it today is I’m going to ask the Premier about the final clause in the motion. It reads as follows: And furthermore, that the Premier of the Northwest Territories transmit a copy of this motion to all of his provincial and territorial counterparts with a request for their consideration for support of a similar House motion.
My question for the Premier is: Has he had a chance to do that, and if he has, what type of feedback has he received from his provincial/territorial Premier-type colleagues? I’m curious on where the development of this initiative may have stepped forward and what journey it has taken. Thank you
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to say that all Premiers of all provinces and territories are very supportive of holding a roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and planning is well underway. The roundtable date is set at February 27, 2015. Thank you.
Now to the part about the motion being forwarded to all of his provincial and territorial Premier colleagues, waiting for that particular answer as to has he had a chance to forward it to them or speak to them about it and are we aware of any sort of initiatives being developed or considered. Thank you.
I always understood that holding a roundtable was the whole purpose of the motion. The Member is indicating that just conveying it to other provinces and territories was all that was required and I’ll confirm that it has gone forward and I’ll provide the Member with copies. Thank you.
There will be no necessity to read the whole motion, by all means, but this Assembly did fully support a national roundtable being led by our Premier. No change in my feelings on that at all. I don’t think anyone has changed their feelings on our support for the Premier on that aspect of the initiative, none whatsoever. The only aspect that I’m asking about is the final portion of the motion, which asks the Premier to transmit a copy of the motion to his provincial and territorial counterparts and request that they consider support with a similar type of motion in their House. That’s the aspect I’m curious about. If the Premier hasn’t had the chance to do that, that’s fine. I just would kind of like to get an update as to what he either has done or what he’s planning to do. Thank you.
Thank you. My office always acts immediately on motions that are passed in this House. So I’ll just have to go back. I’m pretty sure that the letters have gone out and I’ll go back and dig those letters out and provide copies to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t need copies of all the letters. I think if the Premier just sends a note and says he’s sent them all out I’ll take him at his word. He’s an honourable fellow.
Is the Premier aware of anyone proceeding in a similar manner? A couple of weeks ago, Premier Kathleen Wynne talked about her strong support for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and the important issue is that other Premiers consider this an important issue. My question really is down to is he aware of any other provincial or territorial Legislative Assembly considering a similar motion to demonstrate their support to this cause that is very important. Thank you.
I’m not aware of any other Legislature that has passed this motion, but I’m sure that once we have the actual roundtable that the majority of them will do the same. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
