Brendan Bell

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think Members know by policy decision of this government, we engaged with the Gwich’in to sit down and talk about an MOU that would see the GTC represent companies in the Gwich’in settlement region and there would be targets for procurement in that region. At the same time, we made the commitment some years ago in the past government to do likewise in the Sahtu region. We have now sat down to start these discussions with SSI, who will be the umbrella group representing the MOU. We have provided them with a contribution to sit down and do some policy development work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I understand, there is nothing preventing a Territorial Court judge from conducting this right now. RCMP officers have been used in the past. We could use the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. There are provisions for this in the Act, currently. It is just a matter of having the federal Minister designate these people as such. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the concern. The Member is right that, under the federal Constitution Act, it is the federal responsibility for these issues. Nonetheless, we are concerned. I did hear the story on CBC and have inquired into the reasons behind what seemed to have happened here. I get the sense from the federal government that setting it up one time a year on July 1st allowed it to be more special. They thought that this was an approach that they wanted to continue with. I have had discussions with our Minister responsible for immigration, Minister Dent, and he has...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I can make that commitment. We are in the process of purchasing the equipment that will be necessary. I want to reinforce that, in some of our past efforts, the camps have become quite sophisticated. Cabins on the land are quite the facilities, actually. I want to make the point that this will not be as ambitious in that regard. We think we need a much simpler process. This is about going out on the land and making reparation for the people. We think that, in terms of programming, there could be a number of things undertaken, but certainly providing meat...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the House knows, wilderness camp programs are an important part of our corrections programming. Over the last number of years, I think we had a number of attempts to get the program up and running and make sure that it is well utilized. We have had some success. Kozo Lake is open right now with eight inmates, I understand, as of mid-January. That is pretty much full capacity for that. We really don’t have any other adult facilities operational at this time in the territory. That is a concern for me. I think part of the problem has been that the model we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government we’ve made the policy decision to pursue an agreement in the Sahtu region. I have spoken in this House about our commitment to conclude an agreement. You have the Premier’s word that we would pursue an agreement. We are doing so and we will stick to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Minister Dent, in our discussions today, had already indicated to me that he intended to do this. I know he intends to do it as soon as possible and, in fact, as soon as we see who the federal Minister will be. I know that we will have some more discussions around that. But I think we can get back to the Member with a response from the federal Minister as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I agree with the Member. I would say we have contacted the Department of Health, and they have indicated to us that there is a contact who would be responsible for contribution agreements in the department.

They are responsible for spelling out the deliverables in those contracts and all the contribution agreements, the same way the Department of Justice does. Periodically, they request a report on the project initiative results. So my understanding is that that is very clearly laid out and stipulated in these contracts. If there are contracting issues with individual departments where this isn...

Thank you. There was some concern raised in the public meeting around this issue, and I think that we specifically agreed that it probably comes from the term "agency relationship." Just to clarify, if the government is providing a contribution or is a funder to an agency like the one we were discussing, then there would be this funding relationship, which wouldn’t necessarily stipulate that the information gathered by that group would come back to government. That would all be laid out in terms of the contribution and the expectation. However, if an agency is delivering a program on...

Thank you. I guess that was a practice run. We’ve got Janis Cooper and Glen Rutland from the Department of Justice with me today. Thank you.