Bob McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As long as you recognize that there are three parties to the negotiations. I don't think anybody would rule out any different attempts as to how to move forward. I expect that as we run into additional roadblocks, I wouldn't rule out any other opportunities to move forward. You have to recognize there are three parties to the negotiations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the legislation it states the Minister responsible for the PUB will bring forward board appointments. I guess that's why we left it at that. Also, I said earlier the Government House Leader had a function, because the Government House Leader brings forward legislation as well, so that was the rationale for having a solid line to the Ministers responsible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that having myself or having the Government of the Northwest Territories chair the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group was quite a recognition of the important work that we do here in the Northwest Territories, and also how far ahead the Northwest Territories is in regards to a lot of Aboriginal issues including Aboriginal rights, land claims, and so on. As the chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, which involves the Aboriginal affairs Ministers of all the provinces and territories, of which at least eight of them are Premiers, and the leaders of the five...

We have a number of ways that we engage with industry. First and foremost is we have the Chamber of Mines for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut which is a very active association and we interact with them on a regular basis. There's also a number of industry events in the Northwest Territories. We have the NWT Geoscience Forum which is one of the largest events in the Northwest Territories where we usually get about 800 to 900 participants and it is a very important show. We also attend the Cordilleran Roundup in Vancouver and PDAC in Toronto, and that allows us to make very meaningful...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was an internal re-allocation from Cabinet support into directorate for the four positions that make up the office of the priorities and planning and associated O and M. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have submitted a terms of reference for a Joint Cabinet Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs negotiations and I believe it's part of the terms of reference and I don't see as to why we wouldn't do that. In the meantime, we have looked at several mandates which we believe have resulted in a logjam for a number of years and we are expecting to, as we committed, put forward new offers in the near future for those outstanding land claims. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was what we call the phase two functional review in the previous government, which identified we were very deficient in the amount of communications people that we had. They recommended that we increase our cadre of communications people. That was the rationale behind the increase. Certainly the more communications officers you have the more they can contribute to a more open transparent government. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working at this from a number of fronts. First of all was the successful achievement of devolution two years ago and we are now continuing to devolve and evolve and the mining legislation out there will be reviewed. We are also looking at introducing a Mineral Resources Act. The Northwest Territories is one of only two jurisdictions in Canada that does not have a Mineral Resources Act. This will be very important for our mining industry. It will provide for more effective oversight and enforcement of Northwest Territories mining regulations. We are also talking...

Early next year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.