Bob McLeod

Indigenous governments have told the Government of the Northwest Territories that building capacities is a priority and a challenge for them. Through the devolution agreement, the Government of the Northwest Territories has heard and responded to the needs of Indigenous governments by sharing up to 25 per cent of royalty resources with our partners for their capacity. This is unprecedented. There is no other jurisdiction across Canada that has stepped up to the plate and offered this type of capacity to their Indigenous government partners.

We are also working with Indigenous governments in...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the honourable Glen Abernethy will be late arriving in the House today due to a personal matter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am pleased to report that the community wellness fairs are proceeding. They are going very well. The most recent ones were in K'atlodeeche. At the NWT Associate and Communities AGM, they brought in some of their props. You could walk through a colon, so you could get people to go and get checked out for colon cancer. I think the most important message to people is prevention and that people are the ones that, if they practise prevention, they will be healthier. I think a large part of the measurement will be how healthy people are going forward.

I am pleased to say that the Truth and Reconciliation Committee recognized the Government of the Northwest Territories for its leadership not only in cultural awareness but also the fact that the history of residential schools and also our land-claim negotiations are in our curriculum. We focused on mandatory training for students and educators. That has been our main priority.

Our expectation is that we will eventually have all of our employees undertaking cultural awareness training, and we will continue. Right now, we will focus on new employees as they come on board. We are hiring a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education is one of the most important priorities of this government, and I think that the Truth and Reconciliation report certainly confirmed that and made some concrete recommendations, which we have embraced. In 2015, the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students was reflected in the fact that 67 per cent of non-Aboriginal students graduated compared to 56 per cent of Aboriginal students. Obviously, we have a ways to go to improve on that. The major initiative that the Government of the Northwest Territories is using to narrow the gap is the NWT Education...

Our government has even gone above and beyond that. Instead of a special event day we have a statutory holiday called Aboriginal Day where everybody gets one day off a year. If you are working for the Government of the Northwest Territories, you can learn about Aboriginal history and culture. Also, you can go out and participate. Aboriginal people can celebrate the fact that they are Aboriginal. Also, we provide funding to those Aboriginal groups who want to participate on Aboriginal Day. We are always looking for ways to promote that. I think that the fact that over 50 per cent of our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, as soon as this budget is approved, we'll have a more definitive plan recognizing that some communities are harder to fill, to staff GSOs than others; but certainly we will have a plan that will lay out where we would see GSOs being housed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Well, we as a government have met on bilateral basis with the NWT Metis Nation, where they requested an opportunity to clarify their positions on several long-standing items, and I certainly believe that we had a very good discussion. We went a long way to having a better understanding of each other's positions, and I think it certainly advanced the discussions.

We were invited to the public meeting that the NWT Metis Nation leadership had here in Yellowknife, along the North Slave Metis Alliance, and at some point, early in the meeting, they asked the government people to leave, and they were...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I should point out that this department only provides administrative services to the Public Utilities Board Minister. However, having said that, there has been no further direction to PUB on net metering. We expect that any direction will emanate with the release of the upcoming new energy strategy for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. It was part of a response, and through you, Mr. Chair, I will ask Mr. Courtoreille to talk about our response in that area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.