Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, we are continuing with our consultations and we expect that will be completed by the end of March. We have committed to working with the Standing Committee on the Economy and the Environment, so I expect that it will be the fall. The federal has indicated that carbon tax or carbon pricing will be imposed in 2018. Our expectation is that we’ll have our strategies completed well before that.

We are holding roundtables throughout the Northwest Territories. We have had very excellent feedback, and we are looking at all options. Certainly, we will do what is best for the people of the Northwest Territories.

We use Earnscliffe to provide strategic information, and they do provide briefings. They did provide briefings to our government on the government environment in Ottawa. They do provide information on federal legislation, the work that is being done there, and also policy priorities.

Between the period that the Member refers to, they provided ongoing advice on our federal engagement strategy development on federal infrastructure engagement. They also supported us by providing communication support at Government of the Northwest Territorieshosted events related to the Aboriginal Affairs working...

Yes, I can confirm that the Government of the Northwest Territories has a contract with Earnscliffe Strategy Group of Ottawa, and they provide government relations and media relations services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.