David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The board reform process has totally undermined the constitutional rights and obligations we have to First Nations people. The Inuvialuit in my region settled their land claim in 1984 and the Gwich’in in 1992. They presently have two self-government tables being negotiated in the Beaufort-Delta region: one for the Inuvialuit and one for the Gwich’in. The Inuvialuit are negotiating for a regional government structure. The Gwich’in are negotiating what the obligations are under the treaties they signed in 1921 and the modern treaty they signed in 1992.

Those agreements...

Agreed. Sergeant-at-Arms, escort the witnesses in, please.

For the record, Mr. Minister, can you introduce your witnesses?

At this time I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring in any witnesses.

With that, we’ll take a short break and begin with the Housing Corporation.

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Minister of Housing.

I’ll call Committee of the Whole to order. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 7-16(3), Committee Report 2-16(3), Committee Report 3-16(3), Tabled Document 11-16(3), Bill 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7. What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Minister of Housing

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is exactly the fear factor that is out there in our region. It is because we are negotiating self-government to govern ourselves and not depend on Yellowknife in the future. That is what self-government to us means. By you saying that basically we now will have to agree to seven boards in the Northwest Territories and you have to live with what the decision of this government is, that is a change in regards to the organization structure in our regions. Again, I would like to ask the Premier...That is a very crucial change in regards to the structure of governance...

Again, it is one of those situations where they are negotiating a claim. There is the process that they call interim protection. There are certain limits made in those interim protection agreements that people know going forward that, if you have lands and it is selected, it is going to be subject to change in regards to who will be the owner or the manager of those lands that you presently have a lease on or basically that you have a…and it does directly state in those agreements that IAB lands will be selected in those communities for those First Nations governments which are designated...

Mr. Speaker, under the Gwich’in agreement, the whole principle of negotiations was that self-government negotiations will be addressed. The Gwich’in desired to have self-government exercises as close to the communities as possible. Mr. Speaker, I believe the board reform will totally take away those powers that we are trying to negotiate for powers in our communities, which again will establish these regional structures and take away those authorities we are trying to develop in our communities. I would like to ask the Premier or the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, is the government still...