Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s an overused word today but I think it’s very valid and it is historic. It reminds me of when we talked about devolution. This is a one of a kind. This group of the people from Deline are on the leading edge and they’re leading the other communities in the NWT that want to follow their lead. It is an historic situation. It is an historic day and it’s also very exciting. This is something which has not ever occurred before in our territory. I don’t know that it’s ever occurred in Canada before.

With that, I know it’s been a very long process, some 19 years of work...

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess I would say, it would be nice if committee didn’t always have to request a document, but if a document is being publicly posted, it would be nice if the Minister advised committee that it was there so we could go and look at it.

I know that this is the beginning of these regional language plans with Aboriginal governments so it’s fairly new, but I’d like to know from the Minister, apart from these monitoring, evaluation and accountability reports or plans or whatever it’s called, a framework, how is the Minister going to assess success of the...

Maybe I got lost in the numbers there, but I don’t think I heard the Minister tell me how much of the $15 million is going to the Aboriginal governments for their regional language plans.

This is public money. It’s coming from taxpayers. It’s coming from the GNWT. So I feel that the Legislative Assembly has to be accountable for this money that is going to Aboriginal governments and that we need to be accountable for all the money that we distribute.

So, I’d like to know from the Minister, is there a system in place between the GNWT, his department and Aboriginal governments to account for both...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in Committee of the Whole yesterday, the City of Yellowknife has a land issue. A quick look around the city shows that this city’s expansion is hampered by water bodies and large rock outcrops. That’s why Yellowknife is so compact and the lack of urban sprawl is something that Yellowknife has been recognized for. This is something that other cities strive for.

Right now with lands withdrawn from development by Aboriginal government and the territorial government releasing little land to the city, Yellowknife is reaching the end of available land to use for...

I guess I would like to know from the Minister, if these positions are not filled, will they be decentralized first and then filled, or will they be filled and then decentralized? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, just to confirm, that’s three translators and an assistant deputy minister. Are they the four new positions in addition to the service officers? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. We have four current positions but there is an increase of nine. So there are five service officers. I understand that. The other four new positions, where are they going? What positions are they? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question here in regards to the opening comments from the Minister. The last page of his opening comments talks about decentralizing nine positions into regional centres. I look at the figures on this page and compare them to 2014-15, also on this page, and I don’t see where the changes are. There’s an additional nine positions. But I guess if we’re decentralizing positions, are we adding positions or are we decentralizing positions that exist already? If I can get an explanation of what these nine positions are, that would be my first question. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to continue with TD 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I was going to ask whether or not there’s been any consultation with the Akaitcho or the Yellowknives Dene, and I’m glad to hear that there is.

Before this interim land withdrawal agreement is extended yet again, will the Minister and the department be consulting with both the city and with the YKDFN to see how it’s going to be done going forward? Thank you.