Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to ask questions of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on employment in small communities, particularly the client services officer position in Fort Resolution.

Can the Minister tell me if there is any dialogue on how to retain these positions that have been reduced to half time, to full-time positions within the department?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In that design, is the Premier in active discussions with the Aboriginal governments in designing a regulatory process that sits well with the Aboriginal governments of those regions? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, will the Premier secure some sort of decentralized model for the resource development personnel that will positively impact Aboriginal communities with the federal government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to shift gears a little bit and recognizing that the Premier covered some of this in response to Ms. Bisaro, when will the Premier start a communication strategy to begin dialogue with Aboriginal governments and consider their input in the AIP?

I’d like to thank the Premier for that answer. I think a deviation of the AIP is needed, but it’s apparent the government is not prepared to do that. According to the history, Aboriginal people are the true landowners of the Northwest Territories. Does the Premier acknowledge that the Aboriginal people are the true landowners and also landowners of the resources in that land?

Mr. Speaker, this AIP has damaged relationships between Aboriginal, territorial and federal governments; the federal resource revenue is much larger; the share of federal resource revenue is much larger than both the Aboriginal and territorial governments’ share.

Our cost of regulating development could easily be much more than the federal government will transfer to pay for it. So in the future we as a GNWT and the Aboriginal governments could be facing costs that we cannot cover. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Dene people and their leaders are feeling very under-represented by this government with respect to the Premier signing the agreement-in-principle on lands and resources. Mr. Speaker, whose land are we talking about? The original landowners for most of this great Territory are Dene. In the Akaitcho Territory, land claim negotiations with the federal government are far from being settled and yet this government, with the federal government support, wants to take control of Dene land and resources before these negotiations to be completed. Mr. Speaker, yes, it comes with...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As indicated by my colleague Mr. Hawkins, I think it was a very good thing through the Committee on Rural and Remote Communities to put in an employment program for small communities. Very much needed. I’ve talked in this House about employment rates a lot, the low employment rates in the small communities. This is really an opportunity for some of those employment rates in these small communities to be increased. I know that this money that’s going into the sustainability of rural and remote communities goes into the base, so it’s a very positive move on the part of...

Mr. Speaker, how does the Premier plan to address what appears to be a very complex regulatory process right across the Territory and specifically in the unsettled areas? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have more questions for the Premier on the agreement-in-principle.

Mr. Speaker, in the area of resource exploration and resource development, what is the Premier’s plan to address any unforeseen costs that exceed what is agreed to by the federal government in the agreement-in-principle? Thank you.