Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When this House first made it a priority to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, I think there was varied understandings of what that meant. And how could there not be, Mr. Speaker? It is a very aspirational document with many sections and many different areas to cover.
However, Mr. Speaker, I think all of us meant it would be doing something in this House. And to date, we have not seen any work to actively implement the UN declaration. Some of us thought perhaps we would just pass legislation similar to BC or the federal government which requires an action plan. Perhaps some of us thought we would see an action plan and it would tweak some programs and services and some internal functions of the GNWT. Perhaps some of us thought it would transform the nature of consultation to truly be pre, prior, and informed consent so that the NWT can be the first jurisdiction to take a step beyond endless, sometimes hollow, consultation and require true consent from Indigenous governments.
I think many of us thought it meant we would settle numerous selfgovernment agreements and truly devolve powers like was the promise of devolution. However, Mr. Speaker, more specifically back in the spring, I was informed in this House during Committee of the Whole that there was an internal inventory being created to assess where all GNWT programs aligned or misaligned with the principles of UNDRIP. This inventory was then going to be used to help discussion with the Council of Leaders and eventually lead to an action plan.
Mr. Speaker, I have asked for this action plan or inventory on multiple occasions now, and still have not seen nothing.
Mr. Speaker, when I raise this, it is said that the work is currently being done at the Council of Leaders. The Premier speaks proudly of the work being done at the Council of Leaders yet, Mr. Speaker, if we don't see any of that work and it doesn't result in any meaningful change, it is not something to be proud of.
We presently have 14 negotiating tables, Mr. Speaker, with no real progress. I'm not sure that adding one more to this Assembly is what we meant when we said implementing UNDRIP.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I recognize that we have to work with the Council of Leaders and we have work with Indigenous governments to get something to implement UNDRIP. It would defeat the purpose to do it unilaterally; I recognize that. But if we don't get anything done in the life of this Assembly, what is the point of making it a priority for this assembly.
I will have questions for the Premier about realistically what is actually going to be done to implement UNDRIP in the lifetime of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member for Frame Lake.
