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. 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.

We have a third-party accountability framework and it has three categories. The categories that provide services to the Government of the Northwest Territories, we can provide multi-year funding agreements, and depending on the type of service and the kind of NGO, and if they get funding from the Government of the Northwest Territories, there are different categories of reporting that are required. So if you’re not providing essential services, then your reporting requirement is not as complicated as for the NGOs that provide essential services. Thank you.

I want to clarify that the NGO Stabilization Fund is just a top-up fund. There are three other categories of funding that are providing funding to NGOs from all different departments. So I’m sure that if you clarify what it is that you want for land claims, we can see if it fits into one of those categories. Thank you.

Essentially what our government wants to do is we want to help NGOs that have no other access to funding. I would think land claims organizations negotiate land claims agreements with other governments and they have access to resources. I would think skidoo clubs were the same; they could access resources. We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that funding the NGO Stabilization Fund is focused on those NGOs that provide essential services to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

We would have to work with all Members of this Assembly to try to address that decision. At this point in time, we are just starting our main estimates process, and there are tremendous demands for fiscal resources, and if the Legislative Assembly feels that that’s the direction we should go in, obviously we look at all of these parameters when we do our main estimates.