Bob McLeod

As we move forward with our energy strategy, this is something that maybe the Member wants to bring forward in our community consultation. As the Members of this House all know, the mines are all under a lot of pressure on how to do business in a profitable manner and they continue to look for innovative ways of how to produce power in a cost-effective manner that makes them a profitable business in the Northwest Territories. If the Member would like to bring that initiative forward in one of our community consultations on energy strategy moving forward, I'd be pleased to have that as input.

We've had discussions with the federal government. The federal government has contributed $250,000 for us to hold consultations with regards to developing an energy strategy and a climate change strategy for the Northwest Territories.

We were very pleased with the Prime Minister's positive response. He was very eager to meet with us and we are looking to meet in the early part of 2017. Each of our three Premiers who have been to Ottawa quite a few times have reinforced that message. When the Prime Minister was here a couple of weeks ago, he reconfirmed his availability, and we're very much looking forward to working with him in this area.

We have certainly identified for Canada and our provincial and territorial colleagues on many innovative approaches in working collaboratively with Indigenous people in our Northwest Territories. I was recently the chair of the Aboriginal Affairs working group for two years, which involved the five national Aboriginal governments and also every province and territory, the Aboriginal Affairs ministers, which included at least eight premiers, and we certainly took advantage of that opportunity to highlight many of the leading practices that we have here in the Northwest Territories and also to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member noted, the Prime Minister has announced a review of laws and policies related to Indigenous peoples by a working group of federal Ministers. My understanding is that this working group of Ministers will be responsible for the review and will examine relevant federal laws, policies, and operational practices to help ensure the federal Crown is meeting its constitutional obligations with respect to Aboriginal and treaty rights; adhering to the International Human Rights standards, including UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous...

Thank you. I'm not aware of any lobbyists in the Northwest Territories, but we do provide information. We put it on the website, government website, of all the meetings that we have. Certainly, in our trip to Ottawa, we set up the meetings ourselves. We do not need to hire people to set up meetings for us.

Earnscliffe was not directly involved in preparing any materials or strategies for Cabinet's November 2016 mission to Ottawa and did not have a role in setting up any meetings with federal government officials.

We are still developing our framework of engagement with the federal government, and certainly we will reach out to our Aboriginal partners and also to the Members of this Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was certainly a concern of ours with the new government, the fact that there was little emphasis on a northern strategy. In a lot of cases we felt we were being treated as a stakeholder rather than as a government in our right. So the three northern territories got together, the three Premiers. We wrote a letter to the Prime Minister inviting him to meet with the three northern Premiers and to indicate that we were the true representatives of Canada's territories and that we wanted to develop a vision for the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Our government has reached out to the Privy Council Office to ask if the Northwest Territories could play a role in this ministerial working group. Although it is very important for Canada to get its own house in order, we feel we have many best practices that we could share with Canada around reconciliation and working with Indigenous people.