Kevin O'Reilly

I'll be happy to have a chat with the Minister afterwards and we can chat about that website because I think there must be some misunderstanding here. I think there are some other longer term solutions. The Minister talked about delegation of appointment authority. We might also look at having an independent body that would vet applications to ensure a balance of expertise and experience on these boards. We could also look at perhaps a policy of nominating candidates for sunsetting positions, maybe six months or even a year before appointments are due. Has the Minister considered these sorts...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. As part of the mandate that we collectively approved for the 18th assembly, I understood that negotiations with Aboriginal governments to settle land rights was going to be a priority. When I look at the table here, there is actually going to be a number of positions cut in negotiations, actually three. I am just wondering: how is that consistent with the mandate that we approved? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier today I have questions for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations on NWT co-management board vacancies. Two of the boards do not have a quorum and 22 per cent of the positions are currently unfilled. What is the Minister doing to ensure that we have an effective co-management system with fully staffed boards? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just wondering when the Minister might be able to get back to the Regular MLAs about this issue.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In February, I asked what the Minister is doing to get vacancies to the comanagement boards filled. This part of my questions did not get an answer and I will be pursuing that with the Minister later today. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I’m just trying to understand the fluctuation of these numbers as well. Can I have some explanation of the fluctuation?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am glad to hear that the Minister will consider this. Can the Minister commit to a timeframe to get back to us on how this might be done or whether he is prepared to actually implement something? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister, but I guess I'm starting to sense a lot of frustration from this side of the House in the lack of progress on this part of our mandate. This side of the House is willing to work. We want to work on this and help the Cabinet start to move these things forward, but progress has been extremely slow, and I really look forward to a lot more progress on these files. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am really glad to hear that there are folks within the Executive that actually track gender on the boards where we make appointments. I guess I am not as happy to hear that only 39 per cent of the people on boards are women. What actions are we taking to try to improve that? Do we actually have any policy on this? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've been in my position now since November 23rd, or whatever, and although we've had one, perhaps two, briefings on general negotiations, I don't recall actually seeing any sort of regular updates that are provided to Regular MLAs. Is there supposed to be some kind of regular report provided to Regular MLAs on negotiations? Thanks, Mr. Chair.