Floyd Roland

Mr. Speaker, the fact is we have not refused anybody to the table. We have invited all groups to the table, and, in fact, between INAC and ourselves, have supplied up to in the neighbourhood of $400,000 for groups to come to the table and participate. We’ve been welcoming, we’ve been open and invited all groups to the table, and throughout this process groups have been at the table and some have not been at certain meetings until April where it was the Gwich’in who said that they were not going to be formally a part of the negotiation process. Previous to that, they were involved.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The devolution of decision-making authorities over public lands and waters from Canada to the Northwest Territories has been a matter of debate and negotiation for much of my lifetime.

Our strong belief is that NWT residents must have the capacity and authority to protect and manage public lands in the Northwest Territories to ensure that our Territory’s abundant resources are developed in a sustainable and responsible manner, and that NWT residents realize the financial and economic benefits from development in their Territory.

This government has worked to put in place...

I am prepared to have that discussion and see how we can add and strengthen this process. Thank you.

The work that we have done and we’re at now, we’ll be facing a decision as the 16th Legislative Assembly whether we go to the next level of negotiations. As pointed out, even the language that’s there before protects the aboriginal rights, and it’s our role as a public government to ensure that the rights of the public as a whole of the Northwest Territories are also represented.

It’s been through the many years that this work has been done and we count on the input of Members who are representatives of the many constituencies across the North to voice their input, as we do commonly practice in...

The aboriginal representatives received a draft AIP in September. They at that point were hoping and I’m sure that they’ve had their discussions or are in the process of having their discussions with their elected representatives of their representative organizations and will be able to respond back. We’re awaiting that response. We’re trying to honour, much like at the regional leaders table, the role of governments and have that interaction government to government as we have been told so many times. We’re awaiting the regional organizations’ responses to the letter that’s been sent to them.

Mr. Speaker, I will get the maintenance schedule for our communities and provide that to Members. I know in our work we do, when we are replacing some capital components, that they do have a schedule for our communities. I will get that information for Members. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, all the work that the Power Corporation does in trying to provide a reliable service to the communities does include a level of redundancy, and that is in the generators, or Gen Set as we call them in the communities, so that there is backup.

The problem becomes more so an issue when we talk about our lines and transformers and so on. They have equipment that they could replace, but it is a matter of getting people into our most remote communities when something does occur like that and we try to marshal the crews to get out as soon as weather permits in some cases to, in fact...

Mr. Speaker, I need some clarification on that. Is there a backup system in place over the summer months? We do have, for example, Gen Sets that are available and we move them in from time to time where they are needed in our communities where there are major outages and major breakdowns. Again, that is marshalled up at the time when we have them set up so that we can move them throughout the Territory. Again, for more specific on what area of backup the Member is looking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that question on the Power Corporation. It was unfortunate the incidents that occurred there, and the power being out for as long as it was and the weather affecting the crews from getting into that community. We must, as the Member has stated, ensure that the community pull together in a very solid way, and a successful way, and ensuring people manage to get power to their homes and keep their homes heated. We thank the community for pulling together on that.

The Power Corporation, on the issue of the outages that have occurred both in Ulukhaktok...

Much like what Members of the Legislative Assembly do every time there’s an election and they gather together to form a vision for this Assembly itself, we will do similar. As we pull their work, there will be similar areas, whether it is around economic development, whether it is around our environment, whether it is around our government structures. As I stated in my sessional statement today, some of those key areas that we’re working on revolve around those very issues and how we can work together to promote a common vision that we could use as northern governments in our approach to, for...