Bob McLeod

WHEREAS the transfer of responsibility from Canada to the Government of the Northwest Territories for public lands and resources, including rights in respect of water, has been an objective of this Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS negotiations among the Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Northwest Territory Metis Nation, the Sahtu Secretariat Inc., the Gwich’in Tribal Council and the Tlicho Government have resulted in a proposed Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement;

AND WHEREAS residents of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to introduce this motion seeking the support of the Legislative Assembly for the approval of the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement. We are here today because we want to seek clear direction from the Legislative Assembly on this question and we will respect the wishes of this House. This is not simply a symbolic motion. We would not have brought forward this motion today if we did not want Members’ support.

When I joined the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Aboriginal governments in this Chamber in March to announce that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of very important visitors that I want to recognize. From the Tlicho: Grand Chief Eddie Erasmus and his wife, Frances Erasmus; Chief Clifford Daniels; Bertha Rabesca-Zoe, legal counsel with the Tlicho; former chief, Leon Lafferty. From the Gwich’in: vice-president Norman Snowshoe and Jozef Carnogursky. From the Akaitcho: Chief Edward Sangris, Roy Erasmus, former chief Peter Liske. Also, I want to recognize former Lapointe Hall student Sam Gargan. From the Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce: president Kathy Gray and executive director Mike...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would like to fund all of the requests, but we have a finite level of resources and we are going to the main estimates process. We will also be rolling out a number of strategies that pertain to social programs, such as the Early Childhood Development Framework, the Northwest Territories Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Mental Health recommendations, Economic Opportunities Strategy, Mineral Development Strategy, the Land Use and Sustainability Framework. So we’ll be rolling out all of those frameworks as well.

So I can commit to the Member...

It sounds like the Member is focusing only on the NGO Stabilization Fund when the NGO Stabilization Fund is just a fund to top up funding to NGOs that provide essential services for the Government of the Northwest Territories.

We have a third-party accountability framework, which is called Excellence Through Partnerships, and I think that is more appropriate to the line of questioning that you are taking. We have three categories of NGOs and I am sure that when we review it, if we get more specifics as to how or why you think land claims organizations should be funded by this government as an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; we reviewed the NGO Stabilization Fund to clarify which types of NGOs were eligible to apply and also to respond faster, to process the applications faster and flow the money out on a much faster basis. We were able to do that. This year we have had 14 applications. Thank you.

Obviously, we want communities in the rural and small communities to have a similar quality of life to other communities in the Northwest Territories. I’ve always said that one shouldn’t be penalized because of where they live, so we would endeavour to try to work in that regard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the last Assembly we were operating under a very severe fiscal situation and at that time the government of the day foresaw that there was going to be a very severe economic downturn. So when the Assembly started, the government of the day decided that we would cut programs, so that we could take that money that we obtained by cutting programs. I think we had a target of about $132 million and that money, in turn, was used to make funding available to a number of different committees. I think we were about to cut about $65 million in programs and that’s where the $5...

We do have a process and we have a main estimates process, and I also listed off a number of strategies and frameworks that will affect the social programs and NGOs. As we go forward, we have finite resources. We will develop action plans for all those strategies, and as part of that, this request will be part of that mix.

I think the answer speaks for itself. It’s a stabilization fund. It’s to help organizations that provide essential services to the Government of the Northwest Territories. It’s to help them to provide more structure and improve their capacity. It’s not continuous core funding. I would expect that over a period of time these organizations would develop capacity that they can function without additional funding from the NGO Stabilization Fund.