Joe Handley

Mr. Speaker, some of the main principles that our government has been very public on and certainly our principles that underlie what we do in devolution include that we will not somehow abrogate or somehow compromise any aboriginal rights of any groups or their treaty rights. As we negotiate devolution, we will not prejudice any land claims or self-government agreements. Mr. Speaker, as well we have said that aboriginal governments should have a role and responsibilities when devolution is complete. We are not just looking at devolution from federal government to us, but rather we want to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize my constituent, Marie Wilson, and also I don’t know if Dave Grundy is there either, but Dave, as well, is a constituent. Thank you.

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Mr. Speaker, as this particular issue on missile defence becomes clearer in terms of what is being proposed and how it may impact us, then certainly we would be ready and willing to brief this House. In the meantime, I want to focus on ensuring that we are at the table when the federal government moves forward on the proposed northern strategy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, no, we don’t have a policy on the federal government's programs. Those would be issues outside of our government and not things we would have policies on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the lead department on these kinds of spills is the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, because of the size of the spill, if Environment Canada chose to become involved, they have the right to become involved as well because of the size of the spill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I have had discussions with the Power Corporation about security and having someone to make sure that these kinds of incidents don’t happen if they can at all be prevented. Mr. Speaker, we have to recognize as well, though, that the generators out at Jackfish do not operate many hours any more because of the mine shutdown and because we have bought the Bluefish hydro project. We are, in the city here, now largely a hydro power serviced community. The only times that the Jackfish plant generators are running is for routine maintenance; the need for them to be started up...

Mr. Speaker, yes, that continues to be in place. It’s in the framework agreement that all three parties signed last winter and we signed in January; I think the federal government signed off in March. That’s the only time frame we have right now, and at some point soon we will have to sit down with the aboriginal governments and with the federal government and review that and see if this is still a realistic target for us to be aiming at. Mr. Speaker, I want to make significant progress or complete devolution during the life of our government and I’m still aiming at trying to do it by 2006...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday was an excellent debate and I would say in my view it certainly was one of our better days if not our best day as legislators here. With regard to the mandate on devolution, I had said that I would make it available to Members and I certainly will do that. Mr. Speaker, because we are in negotiations, I really don’t think it would be wise to make public our mandate unless everybody wanted to put their mandates on the table because it is a negotiated process. But, Mr. Speaker, I’m ready to make it available to Members privately. I’m ready to make it...

Mr. Speaker, yes, I’ve already made that request to the Prime Minister in earlier discussions. I am meeting with him on Sunday, and that will be reinforced. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, first of all let me say that when we balance our grants and our own resource revenues, we expect to have what we have always referred to as a net fiscal benefit. We never want to see a dollar for dollar, otherwise why are we doing this. Mr. Speaker, on the other one, on the report, yes, I believe the federal government is not getting the fiscal resources out of our natural resource development. We are not getting what we should and I saw the same report, I know we are getting much, much less than some of the Scandinavian countries, for example. Mr. Speaker, that’s the federal...