Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will put it out there for now and will follow up with the paper. In the directorate side under total affirmative action: 67 percent non-indigenous; 33 percent, obviously. Again, this directorate is three positions. Department-wide we might as well deal with that now seeing as the question has come up. Total department of 69 positions. We have affirmative action of 62 percent. Of those, 26 are Aboriginal, 36 are indigenous non-Aboriginal. And the work, senior management, a total of 12 positions, 3 female, 9 male. We will follow up in writing. Thank you.

Previous governments used to have in place political accords that were time sensitive, I guess one could say, and could be renewed or avenues selected. Our process has been the northern leaders. We don’t have any additional budgets for protocols. Departments themselves could look at internal resources. For example, the MOUs that are in place have one been decided by the Government of the Northwest Territories of the day and we continue to honour those going forward based on economic activity and that work.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The allocation is for the regional government meetings. We identify three meetings per year. We used to identify four but found the preparation between meetings and the scheduling to be difficult. So we cut it back down to three. The contributions here are to take part in those three meetings annually. As much as the agenda is set by all parties, it could clearly be an item that we have ongoing discussions around the devolution AIP issue. That aside, as I said through Executive earlier today, we would have to come back to this House for additional funding to deal with...

Mr. Chairman, following on the regional leaders’ table that we’ve established since the start of this government and quite clearly at a number of those meetings those regional leaders that have the authority to make decisions on behalf of their constituents have put on record that they’re the decision-makers in their regions and they’re the ones that need to be consulted in this area. That’s why we’ve sent the letter out to all the regions to say that as we go forward on this we’re prepared to go into the communities, regions and communities to go over the AIP and that work that needs to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess it would be through Executive that supplementary appropriation would be coming forward. The format and funding would need to be developed before that could come forward. Right now what we do have for concrete examples is the Sahtu, where they brought in leadership and youth from the communities around, we had three of the communities represented in Deline and we sponsored that meeting, in a sense, to bring them together. We’re looking at doing that again in Fort Good Hope with all of the communities and regions.

Part of the thing we need to look at is that...

The role the Executive has played is one of liaison and coordination, but ultimately we’re not going to take over the primary role of a contract that is with, whether it’s Education, whether it is Health and Social Services or Justice or whatever department’s out there. We do, in fact, I think, many organizations are quite familiar with the face and the name of our operations ADM who has been driving much of the work that’s being done and we’ll continue to operate in that manner, and of course, when those issues arise, that we look and work with other departments to see if there are issues...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The area of the regional leaders is not purely about devolution. It is about a number of other matters where there are common issues of discussion ongoing. Devolution was one of those as we got closer to signing and will play a role as we go forward. Clearly that funding that’s identified within this budget is the process of the meetings to go out and do the work.

The Northern Leaders’ Forum piece is that work that’s aside to the Northern Leaders’ Forum as I spoke to earlier around Executive. That table is a side discussion on Creating Our Future Together. We have a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The hope is at some point it will become a routine part of doing business, but as we endeavour to go down this process of setting up the regional leaders meetings, and that’s what this funding is tied to, it’s contribution to the seven regional groups so that they can take part in this. When we talk about doing these things, the issue of capacity and revenues comes into discussion and this is our way of helping them participate in our ongoing meetings.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, there’s a lot of history. The Member has touched on it, I’ve touched on it, about processes that were established. Yes, the issue of devolution on lands and waters within the Northwest Territories, and these are waters, for example, inland lakes and so on, that are managed today by someone who wears a badge that has a federal government insignia on it; an INAC employee or others in similar areas of responsibility. All we are talking about is drawing that existing authority that is practiced by the federal government who has shown us on a number of occasions and...

I think the reflection of this Legislative Assembly shows we’re not just like the federal government. I take a point with drawing that comparison. The fact that if you look at the document and you look at the history and you look at the work done on that document, it had the inclusion of Aboriginal governments. The offer is still on the table for them to be a part of the process going forward. We’ve made every offer and in fact continue to make the offer to try to come to an agreement on moving forward with those that have not signed on. The AIP itself allows for the groups to join on at any...