Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. New legislation would be required to establish a lobbyist registry. In other jurisdictions where lobbyist legislation exists, the responsibility for managing a lobbyist registry is usually assigned in that legislation to an offer of the Legislature. For example, in Alberta, the lobbyist registry falls under the purview of the Ethics Councillor; the Government of Canada has a Commissioner of Lobbying.

We certainly agree that transparency is important and there’s no reason why the public should not know with whom Ministers are meeting and why. That information is available...

We’ve left that up to the Metis governments to decide whether they want to participate nationally. At one time the Metis Nation was part of CAP; another time it was part of MNC. For the past 10 years or so, they haven’t been associated with any national Metis organizations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The federal government is negotiating land claims with Metis government, and Metis were included in the Gwich’in land claim and the Sahtu land claim and also in the Tlicho land claim, so it is being negotiated through the land claims process and I know that the federal government does fund some Metis locals that have been able to make their case for specific reasons.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We used to have 17 Metis locals; we’re down to 10. The funding is for core funding and administration.

Certainly, within our own Government of the Northwest Territories programs, we treat all Aboriginal groups the same, especially when you look at Student Financial Assistance. I’ve had some discussions with the federal Metis interlocutor and I could raise Metis issues with him as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government endeavours to make sure that all Aboriginal governments can benefit from development in all parts of the region and we work very closely with the Metis governments and Metis locals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. It is being negotiated through the land claims process. Other than that we are funding $20,000 per local. Thank you.

The funding comes from the core funding that used to go to the Metis Nation of the Northwest Territories. When that body dissolved the money that was available was divided amongst 17 Metis locals. They used to receive $13,500, and two years ago we changed the funding formula so they get $20,000 each now.

As a government we provide $20,000 a year in core funding to Metis locals and there are a number of Metis issues that we would want to have clarified with the federal Metis interlocutor, and I would be pleased to report back.

The Minister of Health has identified this as a priority and we’ve realized that if this had been done some time ago, it would have been a lot cheaper. I think when it was first looked at it was going to cost about $7 million; I think it’s more than that now. We do have information available and we can get it and provide the latest estimates to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.