Welcome, colleagues. Colleagues, before we continue with orders of the day, I ask that you be conscious of the interpretation service being offered and urge you to slow down when you're speaking. Our interpreters offer an important service to allow constituents to listen to the Assembly's proceedings in our territory's official languages.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am pleased to announce the temporary day shelter will open next week at the site of the former visitors centre in Yellowknife. The day shelter is vital to keeping residents experiencing homelessness safe during the depths of winter.
Madam Speaker, the need for a temporary day shelter arose from the public health order to physically distance indoors during the COVID19 pandemic. This order, while critical to keeping all residents safe, has reduced capacity at the day shelter and sobering centre on 50th Street, meaning that many individuals who need that service are unable to rely on finding space available during the cold weather.
The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority has been delivering additional temporary day sheltering services since the beginning of the pandemic. This service protects the health and safety of members of the community who are experiencing homelessness with shelter, bathrooms, food, laundry facilities, and program navigation.
Madam Speaker, providing this essential service is an important component of this government’s commitment to reconciliation.
The City of Yellowknife’s pointintime count data collected in 2021 shows a significant overrepresentation of Indigenous people. Of those surveyed, 91 percent identify as Indigenous compared to just 23 percent of the total Yellowknife population. This data also tells us that 62 percent of the homeless population had at least one parent who attended residential school and 19 percent attended residential school themselves.
We can't ignore the tragic legacy of residential schools whose damaging effects are still felt today. Caring for and providing essential services to people experiencing homelessness and battling addictions is part of facing that legacy and advancing reconciliation. Despite the importance of this service, however, there have been significant challenges to secure a suitable option.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to advise that through a concerted effort to find a solution, we secured the temporary day shelter modular through our partnership with the private sector. Contractors offered the use of their modular work camp units following the completion of the Tlicho allseason road. These units have been placed on the former Northern Frontier Visitors Centre lot. Use of the lot is made possible by a declaration of a local state of emergency by my colleague Minister Thompson as Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
The temporary day shelter will open in this location in the coming days and will provide safety and basic services to meet the needs of members of the community who are experiencing homelessness. The goal is to secure the required municipal permits for this shelter to remain in operation until the completion of the permanent Wellness and Recovery Centre in early 2024.
Madam Speaker, the opening of this temporary facility illustrates the importance of collaboration and is an example of what can be accomplished when we collectively commit to the needs of all residents, including those experiencing homelessness and addiction. I wish to extend my gratitude to Minister Thompson for using the Emergency Management Act to ensure timely access to the site; Kavanaugh Waste Management for notifying us of the camp unit option; Kiewit Construction for helping get the units on site; and local contractors for their work to prepare the units for occupancy. I also want to thank staff from the Department of Health and Social Services and the Health and Social Services Authority for their tireless work to find a suitable alternative for the temporary day shelter. Without the efforts, we would not have been able to make this solution a reality.
I would also like to recognize the City of Yellowknife for making the Yellowknife community arena available for use while the visitors centre site is being prepared.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank those community members who have voiced their support for this important work. The GNWT shares their commitment to the provision of respectful and dignified services for all residents. The temporary shelter represents another step in the path towards finding a permanent location for these services. We are working diligently on the design of the permanent Wellness and Recovery Centre and will continue to look for support from the community to make it a reality.
Lastly, Madam Speaker, and certainly not least, I want to acknowledge the good work done by all shelters, including Inuvik, Hay River and Fort Simpson, to address and overcome challenges presented by COVID19. Especially in my thoughts right now are clients and staff impacted by the recent fire at the Inuvik warming centre. I appreciate the efforts to relocate these clients and ensure services to them continue. The perseverance shown by shelter staff, across the territory is commendable, and I thank each and every one of them for your dedication. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Ministers' Statements. Minister for our Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Madam Speaker, winter has arrived, temperatures are dropping and will continue for the next couple of months. Dropping temperatures bring great concerns for underhoused residents, without a warm place to live, without comforts that many of us enjoy day to day. Our partners who provide shelter services have been planning for months.
I would like to speak about the vulnerable and the critical of nongovernment organizations that have come together and the shelter workers to do, and to try and work with those without a home and a safe and healthy place to live.
In Inuvik, working the overall direction of many partners, including the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Gwich’in Tribal Council, the Town of Inuvik, and people with livedexperience, two shelters are providing much needed support for persons experiencing homelessness. The Inuvik Emergency Warming Shelter, which is open to anyone requiring a place to sleep and a meal; and the Inuvik Homeless Shelter, which supports persons that may be more stable and independent but do not have a place to call home.
With the recent fire at the Inuvik Emergency Warming Shelter, we know that services to our underhoused population is more critical than ever. We are actively working with our partners and various levels of government to ensure that the displaced that we provide supports and can continue, and I am committed to keeping the House updated as we navigate a path forward.
In Hay River, the Hay River Committee for Persons with Disabilities operates an emergency shelter providing meals and a safe place to stay. In Fort Simpson, the Village of Fort Simpson coordinates the operation of shelters with the advice of community parties that includes the Liidlii Kue First Nation.
Yellowknife has long been a catchment area for people without a place to live. The Salvation Army provides shelter to men. The Women’s Society Shelter provides a shelter for women as well as offers semiindependent rooms and runs a Housing First program. The YWCA provides emergency rental housing for homeless families. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation provides operational funding for all of these programs. As well, our partners delivering for the NWT Housing Corporation is the Northern Pathways. The Housing program provides important opportunities for housing stability in Behchoko, Fort Simpson, Aklavik, and Fort Good Hope. Our partners include the Behchoko Friendship Society, the Liidlii Kue First Nation, the Aklavik Indian Band, and the K’asho Got’ine Housing Society. The Northern Pathways is recognized by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness as a best practice and innovative model for addressing homelessness in rural and remote communities northern Indigenous communities.
Madam Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation will continue to support all these operations by providing policy and procedural guidances where appropriate, supporting training opportunities for frontline staff, developing physical standards for facilities, and providing operational funding.
Winter is a dangerous time for people without a roof over their heads. I want to commend and thank all of our partners for stepping up when they are needed most. These are not simple jobs caring for the less fortunate amongst us. Often program participants may come with a number of complex issues including mental health, addiction, and physical health. Our partners and frontline workers provide supports focusing on people’s strengths, not their weaknesses. I could not be more proud of the work that they are keeping and working with our residents and keeping them safe and secure.
I would also like to thank the Housing Corporation and the several staff that have come together in partnership and have created this partnership between the Housing Corporation and the nonprofit organizations. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, the other night I was watching the news and after years of Iran failing to come to the table to negotiate a nuclear deal, I heard the lead negotiator on that file say they expected a deal within one year. And Madam Speaker, I thought let's hire that guy to settle some land claims.
Madam Speaker, the time, all across Canada in fact, not just the GNWT problem, to conclude a land claim agreement is getting longer and longer. They are becoming slower and slower to negotiate and as the time period gets longer, the number of leaders involved in each negotiating gets longer, only exasperating the problem.
I believe the root of this cause is many. There is a little bit of blame on all parties and probably a lot to blame on lawyers like me who have turned it into a largely technocratic exercise that can take years as opposed to a political one about nation building. Madam Speaker, but I do believe that if we had the political will we could move much faster in this area. In fact we negotiated devolution, the single largest land transfer in Canadian history, much quicker than we have negotiated any other agreement.
I note there are different factors all around but, Madam Speaker, I believe that we need to take a new approach and press reset. We need to look at all of our negotiating mandates in light of devolution, all of our government agreements in light of the powers we now hold, and have a whole scale rewrite. I believe that we need third party review of this, preferably a third party who has actually settled some agreements. I know there are a lot of exChiefs and exnegotiators in this territory who would love to see those mandates and provide some insight.
I believe it's worth noting that I have never seen a negotiating mandate. I have never been been at a negotiating table so everything I say is to be taken with a grain of salt. But there are people in this territory who know how to actually get these things done, and it has been far too long.
Madam Speaker, you we have a suite of policies, whether it be the land lease only policy, land withdrawals, and various other policies that are, in theory, meant to help us assist in settling the unsettled claims but I think that we have to ask ourselves if whether those are actually hindrance. If everything meeting that my Cabinet colleagues goes to is about cabin lease taxes, I think that a hindrance to actually getting these claims done. I believe we know need a wholesale review with third party and public input on what we are negotiating and what we are willing to give up in light of our implementation of UNDRIP and our commitment to get this done as an Assembly. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Member. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I just want to thank all the people in my communities that I'm really proud to bring forward that our frontline staff are doing so well working together in all four communities, and thank the health care crew, our school teachers, our RCMP staff, and all our local leadership in Nunakput. But I believe the ability and the diligent work of everybody in the communities to keep us safe and hard work is not going unseen, and it is to keep our communities safe and I am so grateful for that, Madam Speaker.
I would like to remind all this week I brought some Member's statements forward that our housing in Nunakput is in a crisis, Madam Speaker. My riding of Nunakput, people are suffering. It has not been a priority of our government; it needs to be a priority, to put forward all housing for the people across the territory. We need to access more money from CMHC. We need to start societies like Fort Good Hope, and all our communities that we represent and I represent, everybody should have a roof over their head and enough proper housing for the people, Madam Speaker.
This year, barges in the communities before freeze up, they were delayed but there was a big concern but in some cases looks, we have to start focusing on the people that we represent and the contracts, but I know they go to the work done and I am thankful for that, and it could have been a bigger than what it was, and I would I like to thank MTS and the ministry again for working so diligently to get those boats into the communities.
Madam Speaker, I just want to encourage everyone in our communities and across the territory, in Nunakput, stay safe, take care of each other. If you have symptoms, stay home, get tested. And if you're not vaccinated yet, please consider getting vaccinated for your family and for the people, for our Elders. And keep our community safe and Nunakput's in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Today I'm doing it on caribou. Tlicho people have lived with caribou since the beginning of time. Traditionally when the caribou moved, Tlicho people followed. They would move from their settlement area to the barren lands to follow the path of the caribou. The meat would be harvested, the hide tanned, the bone marrow boiled, and other bones used for tools. Every part of the caribou was used and an important part of the Tlicho way of life. Today, Madam Speaker, we know the relationship with caribou is changing because the numbers of the herd continue to decline, and a ban is in place to protect the caribou for future generations.
There is a concern about this due to conflicting information regarding caribou herds. The herds of the caribou that we heard of. Accordingly when the ban was in force, Tlicho people were told the ban would be for three months in 2010. It is now 2021 and the number of herds reported is still low. The ban has been place for over ten years.
Madam Speaker, there is concern that people who have always relied on caribou to survive are being separated from their traditional way of life. People identify themselves by their relationship to caribou. The current state of the herd and the ban on hunting impacts Tlicho way of life. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has a lot of ontheland programs to support families to get out on the land. I recognize the department's efforts to support healthy relationships with the land. But, Madam Speaker, it is very difficult for Tlicho people to live as they always have since the herd is not easily accessible. Thank you, and I will have questions for the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Thebacha.
Member’s Statement on
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there is one issue that I have tried resolving off the floor of the House. But today, I have not had sufficient responses on. Perhaps here I can get some clearer answers. The issue is about a position within the Northwest Territories Power Corporation which used to exist but has since been changed or terminated. That position is the regional South Slave superintendent.
Madam Speaker, I have tried asking now two separate Ministers of NCPC to reinstate the South Slave superintendent position at the Fort Smith NCPC office. The last Minister told me that this position never even existed in Fort Smith or in any other of their regional offices. Well, that's odd, Madam Speaker, because I know a Fort Smith resident who is a former employee of NCPC whose title was superintendent and he worked there for nearly 20 years.
Madam Speaker, I asked oral questions about this on March 30th, 2021, but the Minister did not have any substantive answers. I have also sent emails January 25th, April 19th, and on May 10th, all of which went unanswered providing no responses at all.
Madam Speaker, I am asking that this position be reinstated and be based in Fort Smith just as it had been one time before. This might seem like a little thing to some people, but this position is important to Fort Smith. In fact, the entire Fort Smith leadership agrees with that and stated that to the Minister when she visited in March earlier this year. Especially with the expansion of the Taltson Dam underway, a position like will be beneficial with the undertaking of this project, particularly because the largest hydro dam in the NWT is in the Thebacha region. Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted
Lastly, Madam Speaker, I do not agree with the current management and reporting structure within the regional office of the NCPC. It is counter to regional decisionmaking authority. Also, it is not okay that all or most of the reporting of NCPC in the South Slave region began to be based out of Fort Simpson. The department has denied that but people have told me that, and there are other ways to avoid duplication of jobs too, since that was another excuse that the government has used to avoid reinstating this position and its former are reporting structure. I will have questions for the Minister responsible for NCPC later today. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. We are nearing the end of the GNWT's fiveyear immigration strategy with a vision of building a skilled and culturally diverse workforce that meets local employer's needs and leads to a vibrant diverse economy. The existing strategy lacked measurable targets so I can't say if the GNWT met its goals, but we have never filled our immigration quota so before this government sets a course for the next five years, I would like to make some suggestion.
First, a made in the NWT immigration program. Last year the Yukon launched a threeyear locationrestricted open work permit pilot program to drive immigration to fill industry needs. This pilot was not a program of convenience but one of necessity for economic recovery. In addition, the Yukon has gone the extra steps to establish an immigration exemption policy that allows newcomers to work for up to three different employers without the need for a labor market impact assessment. The pilot project reflects the unique labor market conditions in Yukon communities and was responsive to the specific needs of employers.
Labor supply shortfalls currently constrain business innovation in Yellowknife. Without people to fill the labor demands of an economic development dream, the dream stays an idea, literally, without legs to walk it forward.
Second is a shift in focus to industry support. There is a direct correlation between our cost of living and immigration, Madam Speaker. When businesses close, everyone loses. There is a chain reaction of shrinkage, loss of morale, and depression of our northern economy that increases the cost of living not only in Yellowknife but across the Northwest Territories.
This week, I asked for a shift in procurement focus from service to government to service to industry. I have the same request for immigration. An industryfocused effort to support economic development by supporting staffing needs we can't fill in the Northwest Territories.
Third, Madam Speaker, is a focused effort on immigration under one roof and one Minister responsible. Today if I want to discuss the immigration challenges of my constituents, I need to direct my questions to three different departments. The GNWT must consolidate its immigration efforts to serve industry needs through active outreach to be effective.
Successful economic recovery for the NWT relies on immigration. This is not a zero sum equation that cancels our need for education, increased graduation rates, skilled northern workers, housing, and northern procurement. Immigration supports our goals in the face of building up Northerners and our collective vision for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Applause
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, going into the festive season, which I believe is the time for family, friendship, and sharing, I have a favour to ask of all the residents in the Northwest Territories. I ask that this holiday you recognize and support your local artisans and consider purchasing the many creations that each makes available to us throughout the year.
Madam Speaker, one group of people that have not stopped working, or asked to be accommodated during this pandemic, has been the artisans. They have continued throughout with their art, to bring some comfort and reflection during these difficult times where some have had to make difficult life choices.
Madam Speaker, when it comes to design and producing the many beautiful traditional and nontraditional creations we see every day, we must be reminded that the talent many of these artisans enjoy was passed down to them by a long line of present and past artisans. With this talent comes the importance of utilizing and respecting those natural resources harvested, or extracted, for use in their creations which will become part of our history.
Madam Speaker, for many of the artisans, it is not so much about the money. It is about passion, it is about vision, and that of sharing the artistic knowledge and talent that has been passed down to them or that which has been selftaught. However, we all know the value of the many unique pieces that are being produced and we must be sure that artisans receive fair compensation.
Madam Speaker, over the years I have had the pleasure of having many local and regional artisans visit me with traditional and galleryquality creations. I believe that for the many of us who do not have the artistic ability, or may have not yet discovered our artistic potential, can still do our part by supporting and encouraging others to support those many talented artisans through the purchase and showcasing their creations.
Madam Speaker, I also encourage everyone to visit the NWT Arts website for artists and creations near you. And in advance, I would like to thank all those persons who will be supporting the artisans of the NWT this Christmas season and all those who have supported the artisans over the years. Please do not stop with this support. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I am doing my part to help out with what the Hay River South MLA is saying.
Currently, Madam Speaker, our outofterritory tourists are not permitted to enter the NWT for leisure travel unless they are travelling directly to an approved remote tourism location. According to operators, to gain this designation they must submit a rigorous COVID plan that includes additional insurance for medevacs, plans for isolating guests, and provisions to bring doctors to site should a COVID diagnosis be required. After almost two years of literally no business, operators are finding themselves in the difficult position of having to decide if they close their businesses or go further into debt hoping that one day they will see a light at the end of the tunnel.
The tourism industry is an indirect and direct supporter of northern businesses including retail, restaurants, art galleries, suppliers, and airlines. We have seen a huge loss in our tourism sector with many businesses changing the services they offer or shutting down completely. Operators are selling their inventory of gear, and many of our shops and retail outlets are leaving or switching to online storefronts to survive the effects of the pandemic restrictions.
With the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 in the NWT, I understand that the order restricting leisure travel by nonresidents is being looked at and hopefully we can expect changes soon. Will these changes come quickly enough to save our vulnerable tourism sector? I really don't know and have to admit I'm not optimistic given how long it will take for operators to recover any sort of profit after years of poor return.
As part of ongoing support for tourism marketing and infrastructure programming, the GNWT announced that the Tourism Product Diversification and Marketing Program and the Community Tourism Infrastructure Contribution Program are officially open for submissions and are eliminating a step by removing the expressions of interest phase.
Has this move by the GNWT come quickly enough to save the NWT tourism industry through the remainder of this pandemic?
When I see outfitters selling assets and hear rumors of large operators closing businesses that not only serve tourists but also local residents, I'm sad for them and worried for the future of the sector. Tourism operators have run out of resources, restrictions have starved their operations, and current entry requirements continue to turn people away. If we don't work hard now to help them, there is no way they will weather the COVID storm. And I have to ask, given the current bleak outlook are we already too late? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madam la Presidente. I participated in a Standing Communicate on Social Development and public technical briefing on Aurora College's transformation on October 27th, 2021. It appears that the work is largely on track. As the Minister knows, and I have publicly stated, I support further development of, and investment in, our education system as a whole, including postsecondary education. I support a polytechnic university as way to focus development of our knowledge economy; ensure our investment in student financial assistance is maximized; and, to give to our students more options.
One part of the reason of the briefing that caught my ear as the federal government commitment of $8 million in their last budget to support the transformation. While this is a welcome investment, it really pales in comparison to what has happened with federal funding or Yukon University.
In March 2019, the federal government announced $26 million for a new science building for the then- Yukon College to assist with their transformation to a university. In January 2021, there was a further funding announcement of $10.4 million in funding and inkind contributions to establish a strategy for patientoriented research, support for a unit, and a patientoriented research and trials unit in the Yukon.
This made me wonder why the GNWT is not getting a similar investment. I have always wondered what our Cabinet colleagues take to Ottawa as funding requests for submissions and what priority is given to various asks.
In the last Assembly, virtually all the effort went into getting big infrastructure funding for roads and more roads. I suspect that tune has not changed much, or not enough, with this Cabinet.
As I understand it, we will not have a full budget for the Aurora College polytechnic university transformation, including facilities, until July 2022. We can't wait that long.
We have a new and what appears to be ambitious federal government in a minority situation, again, almost like our own consensus government here. We need to get our case before them for funding and investment in our postsecondary system now. I will have questions for the Minister of Education later today. Merci, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Member. Members' statements. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. On Tuesday, September 16th, Tommy passed away in his home. Tommy was known by many others during his life. In the residential school in Aklavik, many of his friends called him Tommy Tucker. At Read Island, he earned the name Aqpaaq, for running messages camptocamp.
In Aklavik, he was told to help a single Gwich'in woman whom he didn't know. He would chop wood, haul ice, and trap for her. Before leaving Aklavik he finally learned that she was his aunt Caroline Moses.
He returned from school to Prince Albert Sound, where his uncle lived, to learn the life of a trapper and hunter until his father, Johnny Norberg, picked him up and took him to Read Island.
Tommy tells of his skating ability when he would skate on the river at Read Island to reach the trapline while Joe, his brother, would run the dogs. Sometimes Tommy would skate over 30 miles in a day.
Later in life, he was recruited for construction of the DEW Line sites. Wherever they were transferred to a site, there was no school, the children of school age were sent to residential school.
When their son Harry Maffa became of school age, Elva put her foot down telling Tommy to quit working because there's no more children that were going to be sent away to residential school. During that time they moved to Coppermine now known as Kugluktuk.
Tom and Elva went to visit their parents on Holman Island. While there, Tommy was offered a job of settlement maintainer. He maintained all the government buildings, including the school, nursing station, and operated the power plant. He built the first runway down the middle of town.
Eventually the government decided that the original site was not adequate to grow the community. Tommy was tasked with moving all the buildings to Queens Bay. The biggest piece of heavy equipment was a D4 Cat. He taught other men how to operate the equipment.
He’s always talking to his daughters about going to school, getting an education, and a career for themselves. He reinforced that his grade 4 education from Aklavik was not sufficient. He encouraged his daughters to move where the jobs were and that home would always be there to come home to. He taught the boys and men in the family how to be prepared for unexpected situations especially when whales arrived. The young men and grandsons loved having him around while they wrenched, built sleds, or did equipment repairs. Supervising the operation and always giving tips, He kept them entertained, too, with stories. The boys loved his oneliners or comebacks.
Madam Speaker, I had the honor to be adopted by Tommy and Elva when I lived in Coppermine. My sisters, his siblings, friends and extended family and I will sadly miss him. The saving grace is he is now in heaven with his loving wife Elva. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With calls across the country to return land to Indigenous governments and really at the heart of our standing land claims is a question about land. I was hoping the Premier could provide some insight.
Thank you, Member. Honourable Premier.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. As the Member stated, it's not an easy answer. It would be easy to say 10 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, but it's not as easy as that. It all depends on the difference negotiations. So I'm going to try to explain some of it and of course offer a briefing to standing committee for more technical if they wish that, but the comparison of land quantum in claims can't be looked at in one area because there's negotiation process. Some take more cash, some takes more lands, some take more subsurface.
The other consideration we have to take when we look at settled lands and nonsettled land is land that is publicly administered by the GNWT, land administered by municipalities, land that's owned in fee simple, land that's administrated by the federal government, and land that might be part of a national park or other conservation area. So, again and the other thing that's really comes into play as well is when some Indigenous governments in their negotiations are looking at exclusively Indigenous governments, which means only settled claims for their people, members of their people, and others are more inclusive in their provisions so they want to provide services to all the general public. Of course, all those factors have to be taken into consideration.
So, again, we're really flexible within that, depending on the needs, the region, the communities. Also overlapping lands. There's a number of lands where it's not just one Indigenous government; it's multiIndigenous governments that have claims in for those lands so all that has to be taken into consideration. So there's no one size fits all.
But I think that it is worth noting, Madam Speaker, that in the NWT, our agreements are among the largest in the whole of the country in terms of land quantum, and I think that's where we are in regards to working with Indigenous governments in the NWT, is very progressive and sets an example for the whole of Canada and perhaps the whole of the world. So, again, it's not as easy an answer as I'd like it to be but if we will offer standing committee a briefing on it as well, a technical briefing. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that it's complicated. I guess part of the concern I hear from Indigenous governments is it's the only reason we have the land is devolution before and, you know, I think there's been a lot of criticism about having a third party at the table. And I guess my question is now that devolution is a bit of a defacto completion, is the agreement to sign on to devolution, and I think probably more importantly the corresponding royalty split, a condition for any future land claims as far as the GNWT is concerned?
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I know that Members don't like me to us to say no in the House, but no, is not a condition of settling land claims. Land claims are separate. So devolution is a table. Many members have there's a mixture. Some have land claim settled, some have selfgovernment settled, and some people are in the process and some are not even wanting to. So the devolution table is a table for all people to share royalties, to talk about land and resources and how we codevelop acts and regulations going forward, and every Indigenous government is welcomed to come to the table. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would also appreciate any insight to whether we have updated our selfgovernment mandates. My current understanding is that there's hundreds of pages which form the selfgovernment mandate. There's a chapter on every single topic imaginable from health to education to government services. I mean, I have never seen any of this but I'm wondering if, given devolution, given the commitment to UNDRIP, whether a full rewrite of looking at all of the selfgovernment mandates is occurring or has occurred? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. A full rewrite of all them, you're right, it's a very big document; I think close a thousand pages and there are chapters on each area. The Member is correct in that as well. So it's not as easy as we're not looking at rewriting the whole thing. What we are looking at is building trust and being more transparent in this government. I know that the federal government does share their principles and interests around negotiations, and so we're saying why wouldn't we. You know, we do need to look at things like comparability, fairness, etcetera. But those things should be shared publicly. We take a lot of hits in the House. We take a lot of hits in the NWT saying that we're not reasonable, we're not fair. And so I do think, Madam Speaker, that by sharing our principles and interests of the mandates will actually outline that to people, and people know what they're dealing with. It's better for all of us going forward. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Final supplementary, Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would really appreciate if we shared some of those principles. I feel like asking questions about something I can't see is a bit of a search in the dark.
One of our commitments is to implement UNDRIP. To date, this House has seen no regulations. I don't believe there's been a single Cabinet policy change and certainly no legislation has changed to reflect UNDRIP. So my question for the Premier is what has been done to implement UNDRIP to date, or what are we doing to implement UNDRIP? Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think that the implementation of the United Nations declaration was a priority of this government, and I take it to heart. Many of the chapters within the declaration talk about "this shall be done by Indigenous people", and so I've taken that to heart, and I think that all Indigenous governments agree with me 100 percent. So right as soon as we began, we one of the finer things that we've done in this government, that we've never done before, we've always had the intergovernmental council that looks at land and resources. That was the last government's initiatives. However, this government has brought forward more. We have two other tables that we work with the Modern Treaty and Selfgovernment table and the Council of Leaders, which every Indigenous government sits at. So within the Council of Leaders where all governments are, they've insisted that we tackle the United Nations declaration. They're not waiting for the Legislative Assembly. They're taking it to heart, that this is about them.
So within that, within the Council of Leaders, there's what's called a secretariat. And so it's a working group, members, officials from all governments. We are one member of that council so we have one official. Every Indigenous government has an official as well. So that working group of officials has just recently established they brought it forward to the Council of Leaders table which was two weeks ago, I believe. Life goes fast. And the Council of Leaders have supported the recommended approach on the next steps to implement the declaration.
So four key points that the Council of Leaders have agreed that we will work towards is.
The co-developing of a law that implements the United Nations declaration in the Northwest Territories;
To establish a memorandum of understanding with Indigenous governments towards the development of the law;
To set a timeline for this work; and,
To provide the ability for Indigenous governments to continue to make recommendations towards implementation.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, on correspondence with the former of Minister of NCPC regarding a regional superintendent in Fort Smith, he stated twice, A regional approach to supervision for multiple functions is not considered best practice in the utility industry.
Thank you, Member. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. So the structure of a government department and electricity utility are very different. What makes sense for a government may not be appropriate for operational companies such as NTPC. In electricity utility, it is not best practice from an operational or safety perspective to establish one individual, such as a supervisor for all workers in a regional office, as that individual may not have the required knowledge or skill set to effectively lead the various roles and functions within that office. Every utility is structured differently but most utilities in Canada are based on functional responsibility rather than a geographic location, which is how NTPC is also structured. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
