Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I highly doubt that the Minister would share all of that with committee. Maybe he would. But is there any sort of summary that can be given to committee to explain this work as it continues and indeed what the end result is? Thank you.
Thank you, Member, Great Slave, Minister of EIA.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when -- in terms of the actual tables, we do provide confidential updates to the Members, quarterly updates with -- they're pretty -- actually pretty descriptive of what's going on. And if you look -- read those every quarter, you will find that you get a good sense of what's happening in there. We've also made the -- sort of a condensed version of the mandate public, and that's -- that was in the last government as well, and that should be posted online, because there was always comments that, you know, we have no mandate. And so there are -- it's pretty solid, concrete mandate items in there that members of the public can go and look at. So a lot of this information actually is out there. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.
Thank you to the Member, Great Slave. We shall move on to the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question to the Minister is, can you provide an update to me about the Dehcho process, what's happening there? An update. Thank you.
Thank you to the Member of Dehcho. To the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. So the new federal government and Dehcho have set the goal and the GNWT have agreed to set a goal of June of this year for an agreement-in-principle. And so an agreement-in-principle is not a final agreement, and it might not even include all of the chapters that would be in a final agreement. Some of those can be, you know, left until the future. But an agreement-in-principle is a pretty substantive document that shows a lot of the work that has been done and sort of has been settled. And so the goal is to get that done by June. And, again, there might be some chapters that are outstanding on that. As a government, we have in this budget an additional $200,000 to put towards negotiators for additional resources for that process. And so I said we don't want to be the ones who are holding things up, and so we've committed resources towards that as well. I met with just today -- I think it was today -- the President Lafferty from the Fort Providence Metis Nation. Last week I met with the grand chief and the chief negotiator. And so there is work going forward. You know, one of the exciting things about the territory and about land claims and negotiations is that, you know, we get to break new ground up here, and we've been doing that for many -- a number of decades already. And so when we have claims that have been in the process for 25, 30 years, maybe we need to break some new ground on it. And so now we're looking at what's -- to get things moving, what would actually need to happen. And maybe it can happen, maybe it can't but it's worth looking at. So that's the work that we're doing. And I am -- as I said, I am personally digging into this agreement, other agreements, making comparisons, coming up with options. So work is ongoing. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. To the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you. So the agreement-in-principle by June, so do you think we're anywhere near close to some kind of final agreement in the -- I can't say this year, next year. Yeah, that's a question. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Dehcho. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if I would even venture to take a guess because no one knows when it comes to the land claims. When you have multiple parties involved -- so it's not just us. There's also Canada. And Canada still has some issues that they need to figure out. They need to provide clarity in certain areas, and I think the other partners have been waiting for years for clarity on some of these areas. And so it's tough to get to the end goal when we don't even quite know what path all of us can take together. So there's still some work to be done there.
That being said, even in my meetings with the Dehcho, I do feel a renewed sense of -- I don't want to say hope. But, yeah, optimism and energy towards a final agreement. So I think that we're as close as we've ever been. I can say that, I guess. Thanks.
Thank you, Minister. To the Member from the Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So relationship building and -- and this has been going very well; can the Minister say that? Thank you.
Thank you to the Member from the Dehcho. To the Minister.
Thank you. So I feel it's been going well. I mean, she'd have to ask the other partners. But I know if I call the grand chief, he'll pick up the phone and vice versa. And I think that's a good start is that we have that trust. You know, we've got to start seeing results and delivering results, and so I don't take that for granted that the trust will just always be there. If I am saying we're going to move ahead and we're not moving ahead, then obviously that's an issue. But I feel as though we have a good relationship, so yes. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Okay, no further questions from the Member. We shall move on to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I keep having to sign into my computer with the insanely long password that TSC makes me have. Okay.
That was a dig.
It's not a dig. It's just a commentary on the state of the world in 2026.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you. So, I mean, the principles and interests, again, we create these at the beginning of a term. I am not confident that we even need to review them. There's been other things that have overtaken that with tasks that staff have been busy with. And so, you know, after this I will go back and I will have a discussion, do we need to have this in there anymore? Because it doesn't seem to be the holdup. There's other issues that are preventing tables from moving forward, and I haven't pinpointed them, the principles and interests as the holdup there. So the goal is to settle claims. I don't think that -- you know, you can't say it's over everything else. There's a lot of considerations we have to look at. If it was just an issue of, you know, we'll throw a bunch of money at this situation and that'll fix it, like, we can't just put a billion dollars towards it, right. So we have to look at the other aspects to it. But right now, without land claims, it's hindering development, it's hindering self-determination, self-government, all of those things, and advancing into the future. And so there is a -- it is a priority, a very high priority. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thank you. I hear that it's a priority. I think that everybody would like to see the results of that priority moving forward. And, you know, I am not going to belabour the point on that one.
The -- I will go back to some -- the conversation that the MLA for Yellowknife North started on the IGCS. So appreciated her raising that point. And I am just going to note that the IGCS has quickly and very quietly become a key function of our government, where our legislation moves through, some of our key policies and programs move through. And when I say quietly, I mean I don't think the public is particularly aware of how significant of a role this table plays in moving our work forward. And I think that that's actually a bit of an issue in a couple of ways.
One is that it is, as far as I am able to tell, operating with pretty minimal resources, and it's not meeting all that frequently, despite the fact that so much is bottlenecked there.
And the other point is that it is operating almost completely behind the curtain, and so it's not something that the public engages with or sees, and yet it is a significant function of where things are moving through the government that the taxpayers are paying for. And, you know, whether they are, you know, on the Indigenous government side or on the side of everybody else. But to those points, I am curious -- well, I guess there's a number of questions that come out of that.
One is, you know, is there consideration to addressing some of the issues that I've raised here? And I will just start with one and go down the list. But the first one is the resources. Is there consideration to resource at the IGCS table more significantly to give it the ability to move things forward in a more timely manner?
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the IGCS meets much more frequently than the IGC. So the elected leaders meet much less often. And I think that's one of the issues. I don't think that -- as the Member said, the public doesn't know what's going on at those tables. I don't think that -- myself included -- leadership is always fully informed of what's happening at that granular level. And that's one of the things that I've been talking about, is how can we have more frequent IGC meetings so that we can ensure we're all on the same page. Because, you know, there's a lot of work to be done and sometimes there might just be some contracted lawyers from Toronto or Vancouver who maybe don't mind if -- you know, if the negotiations continue in perpetuity and they keep racking up billable hours. And not to say that that is what the Members on the IGCS or the -- at the tables are doing. But we just don't know, and we -- that's why I said before, if there was more hours in the day, I would have been more on top of this because, as the Member said, it has become a very significant part of our government, and he has, you know, previously made comments to me that -- on ways that we can improve that process, and those are the types of things that I like to hear because those are the kind of comments that I am bringing to that table so that we can implement those things. So yeah, the Member is right. It's been almost in the shadows a little bit but we need more of a focus on it, and I think all of us, not just the GNWT and the public, but everyone who's involved in this. Thank you.
Thank you. And I will go back to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, you know, to the Premier's credit and to the credit of everyone working at this table, you know, I've had our research team looking into this and confirmed, you know, we're the only government doing this in Canada. This is the only IGCS there is. And so we really -- I often say we're not reinventing the wheel here. Let's just do what other jurisdictions are doing. We don't actually have that referred to in this case. Because we are inventing the wheel and that is not a simple or easy thing to do, but it means that we also need to be in control of this and be the ones that figure out how to make this work efficiently.
Something that's been mentioned to me, I got a chance to speak with somebody that works at the table, and it was mentioned, like have we considered the idea of making the IGC or the IGCS, just the general functions of it, a more independent and properly funded office so that it would be kind of separated from government a bit, made more public and, I guess, established more officially as a function of government. Because right now it just seems to be operating -- I don't want to say that it's ad hoc because I don't think it is ad hoc, but it is operating, like I've mentioned, in this way that is not very publicly accessible, and I think we're still kind of in the process of figuring out how it's all going to work. So I am wondering if we've thought about establishing it as kind of an independent arm of government in some way. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister for Executive and Indigenous Affairs.
Thank you. So right now, I believe the Government of the Northwest Territories really sort of fulfills that secretariat role, and there is now discussion about using some of the internal resources to have a more independent, standalone secretariat that is not GNWT but is of the IGC and of those governments. And there's also the Indigenous governments caucus together as well and looking at how they can work more closely together and better in that space. And I think this is all sort of part and parcel of the review. And those conversations are happening in advance of it, and so that's not to say changes couldn't come beforehand, but yes. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go back to the Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And as part of the review, will it be considered whether the work of the IGCS could be made more publicly accountable? So something that the public has access to. Because right now it's all being done behind closed doors. I am sure there are reasons for that, which may or may not be justified, but it is a concern that's been raised by constituents of mine.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister.
Thank you. So the IGC does have a website. There are documents on the website. There's communiques. So there is information out there, so it's not completely a shadowy organization. But, again, it's a creation of the devolution agreement. It's the governments who signed on to devolution. And so we are one partner in that, and so I can't really say that we would, you know, be -- open up the doors and make everything public, but I think there is value in the public having a better understanding of the work that the IGC does. And so these are things that I will bring forward to the secretariat to consider incorporating into the terms of reference for that review. And any other good ideas that Members have, I am happy to bring those forward too. Thank you.
Thank you. Next, we will go to the Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just have one question. But before I start, you know, when this institution was first born in the '60s, MLAs were people that we were not familiar with. Since that time, we have come a long way, so which is good, and it's good to see this department or division dealing with wide variety of issues concerning Indigenous. So I am, you know, quite pleased about that, and I am, you know, grateful -- I mean, I am thankful that, you know, my colleagues are asking, you know, all kinds of questions regarding this division -- within this area. But the questions that I have, you know, we're dealing with a lot of Indigenous issues and, you know -- and just by -- you know, with my colleagues asking all kinds of questions, which is good, and I see here, you know -- you know, I am always talking about decentralizations, and I would like to see, you know, we move forward on decentralizing jobs from Yellowknife to the regions, especially to small communities, especially now with the mine closure. We need jobs. People have to live. There's people outside of the larger regional centres. And you're from outside too and, you know, if you were from Yellowknife I would say do you know that there's people living outside of Yellowknife too. But you do know. You are aware of that. So headquarters, there's headquarters here. Well, it went down from 35 to 34. We're dealing with Indigenous issues. Why all these jobs are situated in the headquarter? I just wanted to ask the Minister if they ever consider moving some of these jobs from headquarters to the region. You know, I don't see Norman Wells. I don't see, you know -- I mean, Tlicho, we're not -- you know, we're waiting to be recognized as a region. So is there a plan in place where, you know, the department is going to -- or the Premier's office is going to focus on decentralizing some of the headquarters position to the region? Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of EIA.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So there's not a plan in place right now but there are -- there have been during my time Members of this division who have lived outside of Yellowknife. We now have remote work policy, so if someone is qualified and they're in the territory, I mean they can apply and there's a good chance that they can remain where they are. There are some things, if it's a negotiation team that, you know, works better in close quarters that you would want to keep together. But we have done that. There have been jobs in other regions, and it's worked, and we're happy to continue to do that. Thank you.
Thank you. I am going to go back to the Member from Monfwi here.
Yeah, there's -- he said there's not a plan in place but I would like to see, you know, like, within the -- you know, within the next fiscal year, maybe it's something that we should start focusing on, not only to the larger regional centre. Because I would like to see a lot of these jobs -- like, decentralizing jobs. It's not just the EIA. From all levels, you know, from the department. People in small communities have to live too. And we -- and I've said it quite a few times, working with young people, you know, many of these young people do -- they don't know about some of these other careers except for the mining. Now the mine's closing. I feel sad, you know. I really do feel sad now that, you know, Tlicho just signed a closing ceremony with Diavik. Now there's nothing for them. So we have to give them something to look forward to. And for so long that many of our youth have gone without lots, and this is where I am really, really advocating. I would like to see a lot of these jobs decentralized, moved to the smaller community. No more of this -- what do you call -- like, remote work, you know. And we do have a lot of qualified people. We have a lot of smart people in the regions, all across the Northwest Territories. We shouldn't have to keep saying -- using that excuse that we don't have people, you know. But there's a lot of good people out there. There's a lot of smart people that can do many of these jobs. It's just that we're not giving them a chance because the job is in Yellowknife, and there are -- some of our youth are already intimidated by working within the system. So if we have more jobs there and seeing, you know, their own people working in their jobs, then, I am sure, they will work towards it. But we don't have that capacity. And even now with the social work, you know, with the -- with no more social work program and teacher education program, we don't have too many Indigenous teachers. The Indigenous teachers that we have right now and social worker are close to -- you know, they've done their 20 year service, or maybe more than that, but we have no other young people coming up after them. And if -- you know, like, I mean, that's why I am really -- I would like to see the teacher education program come back and social work. That's where a lot of our young people built their -- like, built their career on, teachers, social worker. And we don't have that. So that's why I am saying, you know, I would like to see more of the jobs move to smaller communities or regional centres and Tlicho region too. So yeah, it's not a planning place. That's not what I want to hear. I want for the Premier to say, okay, we're going to work on it. Thank you.
Thank you. I will go to the Minister of EIA.
Okay, we're going to work on it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Okay, next I am going to Member for Range Lake for a motion to report progress.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Chair rise and report progress.
Motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the chamber, and we will commence tomorrow.
Member from the Dehcho.
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 448-20(1), 2026-2027 Main Estimates, and would like to report progress. And, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member from the Dehcho. Can I have a seconder? You got it, Yellowknife South. She was just putting her hand up waving hard, so. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions?
I think we're going to have to do that again.
All those in favour, put your hands up, please. All those opposed? Those abstentions? Member from Yellowknife Centre, you were not in your seat. Your vote does not count.
