Bob McLeod

We are still finalizing our draft communications and engagement plan, and our expectation is we will share it with committee. The principle is that when we go to the regions where the Aboriginal governments have not yet signed on to devolution, I expect that we will go to their communities with some representatives of the Dehcho First Nation Government and the Akaitcho First Nation Government. We have done it before so we would do it again. They’re the best governments to tell us and make sure we don’t infringe on any rights.

Well, I’ve said it before that we are the elected leaders of the Northwest Territories. We are here to represent the people of the Northwest Territories. I think we should stand up and be counted. I don’t think we should be running a government by plebiscite or by referendum.

No, I didn’t say that we expect no conflicting opinions. We’ve heard a lot of conflicting opinions, even here in this House. I’ve also said that we were going to put it to a vote here in this Legislative Assembly. If you have a conflicting opinion, you can tell us when we have our team going around to all the communities or you can tell your MLA.

Thank you. I’ll work very closely with my colleague, the Minister of MACA, and we’ll see how well or how many action plans we’ve developed. If our action plans are developed to the extent whereby we can move to the next level and if committee concurs that this would be a priority, then we would seriously look at this framework that the Member is talking about. Thank you.

I agree with the Member.

If the Members wish, we would put it to a vote in the Legislative Assembly, and it would be a yes or no vote.

We expect that it will take about 40 to 50 days to have our public engagement and communications done on devolution, and I expect that we can vote on it in the May-June session.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are just in the process of developing our draft communications strategy, and I think we are sharing it with committee. If it hasn’t reached committee yet, it will be there very soon, in the next day or so.

I guess my understanding of various interpretations of this House is if you believe it to be correct, it doesn’t necessarily have to be true. But if you make a statement and it’s obviously incorrect, then I guess what I expect would happen is that you would want to correct your statement at the first possible opportunity so that you don’t want to be seen as providing incorrect statements to this Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize some ladies here from the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories. Starting with Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director; Tina Gargan, president, representing the Deh Cho region; Georgina Jacobson-Masuzumi, Beaufort-Delta. We also went to school together way back when. Doris Camsell, representing South Slave; Su-Ellen Kolback, vice-president, from the North Slave; Samantha Dechief, community development coordinator; Annemieke Mulders, program and research manager.