Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, let me restate the fact that we have established a working relationship on a quarterly basis with our regional aboriginal leadership and the Government of the Northwest Territories. We’re formalizing the process where both parties would put agendas on the items and build on those. I have initially addressed the issue of devolution of resource revenue sharing to see if there is continued support or if we can grow that support. And we’ll build on that situation.

I think, first and foremost, Mr. Speaker, when we talk of ourselves in the North, we must also present a business case to...

Mr. Chairman, this amount, as the Member has pointed out, is an additional amount from a federal program that is incorporated into this process. I’m informed that the money will be useful in the recruitment and payment of family law lawyers to enable the lawyers to travel into communities prior to court parties arriving. So it gives them some advance opportunities to meet with those that are involved in the court process.

That is one of the areas. As we’re informed, it is not new money. The funding was approved for three years and sunsetted by the federal government, and they’re recently...

Mr. Chairman, the program started in January 2005, so this is a continuation. It’s been adjusted as of recently. I believe it ends in five years, so it’d be 2010.

I move, seconded by the Hon. Member for Thebacha, that Bill 2, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 3, 2007-2008, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

I’d have to go to the Minister of Health and Social Services to look at whether the Department of Health and Social Services provides this service. When cases are going before criminal court, a presiding judge has the authority to go ahead and order an accused to undergo a psychiatric assessment. We would have arrangements with Alberta if we don’t have those available in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, this gives me an opportunity, from the Member’s question, to set the record straight and clear up some of the comments that have been put out there through the media about the fact that my discussions with the Prime Minister went badly and, as a result, I’ve come back home to say no devolution talks are occurring.

The fact is, early after the election, I had an opportunity to meet with the regional aboriginal leadership across the Territories. We had an opportunity to sit down and give an indication of the fiscal environment we were in, as well as ask if there was support for...

Mr. Chairman, as I stated, this action would have to be undertaken through our business planning process. The Minister of Health and Social Services, along with FMBS, would look at the impact of that decision, and it would have to come forward as part of a planning position.

Mr. Bromley: Just one more follow-up to that.

This ’07-08 fiscal year still ends at the end of March. Later on in the session, we're going to be dealing with how we get from March to June. This budget, the dollars voted for the 2007-08 fiscal year and the authority to spend those dollars ends March 31, 2008.

Mr. Speaker, we can look at introducing a piece of legislation that would affect us. We couldn’t introduce legislation that would make the federal government do something, but we could look at doing something that we would end up venturing into the area that the federal government right now holds as authority. If we decided to invest in this project, then we are entering into that field on our own.

The practice is that as we self-insure, we have deductible limit. We would pay for this work to be done up to the maximum amount, then insurance would kick in. Even if insurance were to kick in, we would have to make the expenditure, and then we would get the return on the insurance file at a later time.