Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Question, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the same vein as consultation and dialogue, we have many people out there in the public service that are on the front lines working with the issues every day. Again, we do go to professionals from outside, we ask for reviews, we ask for expert opinions on things. I would like to know if either candidate has any innovative ideas in this kind of high-tech modern age of communication of how we could more effectively, as a government led by a Premier and a Cabinet, engage constituents in the Northwest Territories in the decision-making process that we are involved in here. Like I said, many times we’re making decisions here. We go out to the communities for public consultation on legislation, for example. People’s lives are busy; they’re out there trying to earn a living; the economy is hot. How do we engage people in the process and the decisions that are made within these walls? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. We’ll go to Mr. Miltenberger first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a challenge that continues to be before us. I don’t have what the Member might consider an innovative idea, but I would say that it’s going to be hard work and I would be indicating to Ministers the expectation that over a two-year cycle that they would get to every community once in their term to see, to go first hand on the ground, to see what’s happening at the community level, to talk to people. We have to foster the relationships with the aboriginal governments and, of course, we have boards and agencies out there that deliver a significant portion of our budgets that we have to stay very closely connected with, because they are another way to tie us to what’s happening on the ground in the communities and in the regions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s another question that is something we can build on. Through the Northwest Territories, at one point in our history the only communication was by a mobile radio, and I recall going into -- when I worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories rebuilding equipment -- going into Colville Lake, for example, and the only source of communication they had was a phone they had at the Co-op store run by a single cylinder Onan

generator that ran their store and that’s how they charged the battery pack. We’ve come a long way in the Northwest Territories. We have, in almost every community, communication systems; our telehealth system improving our systems throughout the Territories.

I think we still have to recognize the fact that as the Northwest Territories, we’re a small jurisdiction and not many places you can go in any other part of the country where your Premier, your Finance Minister, your Health Minister, is in your community and you can call him by name, or her by name. I think that’s one thing we need to recognize, is that we have that almost immediate ability to have the face to face contact and we need to continue building on that. More importantly, I think there are some innovative ways of doing that and we’ve heard about websites and so on, but we could probably go one step further in doing some online forms that way to seek input from individuals. Most of our schools now have Internet capabilities. Some of them, the speed is not very fast, we recognize that, and we need to build on that. But it’s there; let’s start using it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman, staff of the GNWT are our most valuable resource. They deliver the programs and services to all residents of the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, morale in many areas of government is low, which affects the delivery of programs and services. My question is to both candidates. As the Premier, how will you work towards strengthening the public service and improve the morale of staff within the GNWT?

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I’ll go to Mr. Roland first.

MR. ROLAND: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that first and foremost, in whatever role we play, the responsibilities and the authority that we carry in our positions, we must treat all employees, it doesn’t matter what level, with respect as an individual and build on that as they work through our system of government and recognizing the commitment they make on behalf of us. At this table we have discussion, we may have heated discussion, and many folks talk about the hot air that rises from this place and maybe that’s all at times, but, more importantly, I think it’s the people out there, the frontline people who deliver the service to the community and we have to recognize that work and the effort they put in that. I think, as a government, we’ve tried to do that in the past and we need to build on that, but at the same time we need to work with them to get ideas from them if we’re going to make changes to the way we deliver programs, because it’s one thing to sit at this high level of government and talk about what works and doesn’t work in communities, but we need to talk to those at the front line to say what works for you in how you deliver your program. Because there are a lot of ideas out there that don’t get tapped into because we’re too busy at this level looking at reports and briefings developed by a consultant or high-level staff within the organization. We need to reach down and talk to those.

I can go back to my father, as well. For years when he went from reindeer herding to Inuvik to work for the SAM School, he worked as a custodian, but he had a lot of input right up the ladder as he talked to what he would say were his bosses. So we can go back to some of that and work with the people on the front line. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, firstly I think we have to be very aware of the impact of every word that’s spoken in this House and how it’s spoken. We all have lots of concerns about how programs may run and the work that is done in our communities, in Yellowknife and across the regions. We have to be careful to characterize it in a way where we do it in a proactive way so that we don’t make staff be of the opinion that their services aren’t valued when we know we’re desperate for the services that the staff provide, and that our government runs on the people that we have employed to deliver programs and services. We also know that we have a Collective Agreement that’s coming due and we’re going to have to sit down with the union to negotiate the benefits and pay, discuss issues that are outstanding with the union in terms of a proper package that will, hopefully, once again be a clear indication of the value we place on employees. We also want to keep working with them on areas that aren’t necessarily money related, that are value-added and make the employee feel that things are important. If we have proper action plans and implementation plans in terms of the vision of the departments and the work that’s going to be done and how it’s going to be done, then people can buy into that. If we don’t have that, then we tend to mill around as a government and we don’t provide the vision and direction that we’re talking about in this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. We’ll go to Mr. Miltenberger first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my intention would be, as Premier, early in the life of this government, working with this Assembly and the Members, to convene two forums; one forum similar to the Caribou Summit where we would bring people from across the North to talk about the very fundamental issues that I referred to in my comments about the question of the water, the land, the animals, the people and resource development, and the balance, that fundamental discussion that has not yet taken place in the Northwest Territories. I firmly believe that the aboriginal governments, given all I’ve seen and heard with things like the water conference in Fort Smith and concerns raised with Keepers of the Water conference in the Deh Cho, that they will come to the table, because that is first and foremost what is most important to the people of the Northwest Territories and will allow us to build a basis to move forward and take us away from the haggling over the money and those other issues, while important, are not as fundamental to how the North is going to develop and how the North is going to

move forward. When we do that, then the logical next step is a resource revenue sharing agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Roland.

Thank you. I think we have a lot of history of working together as people of the Northwest Territories. We’ve heard lots of comments, both pro government and not on government when it comes to the relationship we have with organizations out there. First and foremost I think we have to show them the respect that is due them. Number one is, for example, with the claims that have been settled and the self- government that is in place out there and others that are being negotiated, is to work with the agreements that are there and implement them. That means honouring the word that, whether it was a previous government, whether we agree with it or not, it is an agreement that is in place and we have to honour it. We are now the Government of the Northwest Territories so we have to honour that word. At the same time, we have to work within a mutually respectable framework. I would say one of the first things I would do if I was selected as your Premier would be to hold a meeting and build on previous steps that were taken to sit down with the regional leadership, once we’ve formulated where we think we should go as the 16th Assembly, and sit with them to discuss how we could work together. Ultimately, I believe it’s about people and community. We all want the same thing and if we can’t, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, deliver a program that is satisfactory in the community, when they draw it down through self-government agreements, they’re going to draw down a system that is not working appropriately. So we need to work together to make a difference for all people in the Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. At this time I would like to commend both candidates for allowing their name to stand for Premier. I have one question for both candidates at this time. My question follows somewhat on the question from the Member for Kam Lake and has to do with governance. The establishment of some aboriginal self- governments are completed at this time and others are currently underway or in progress. When all regional self- governments are established, what role will the candidates consider that a territorial government or Legislative Assembly will play in the governing of the NWT and its peoples? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to Mr. Roland first.

Thank you. That is a solid question.

---Laughter

As governments before us have wrestled with what the Government of the Northwest Territories will be, let me start by this. It’s not been that long ago that aboriginal peoples in the Northwest Territories have even had the ability to vote. I remember talking to my father a number of years ago and asking him, as self-government became more and more of a topic in our communities, I asked him what he thought about self-government. He sat there quietly and he looked at me and he said, I have the right to vote now; I’m happy. That’s a very simple way of looking at it for the ability as a person in the

Northwest Territories to make decisions as who is your government and how will they do the work for your benefit. More importantly, coming back to today, I think, number one, we have to recognize there is going to be a role for a central government in the Northwest Territories. We cannot afford to divide up the pie that we operate with in the Northwest Territories so that all governments would fail. We need to build on that together and then structure how we’re going to go forward with that. The reality is there will be self-government in the Northwest Territories. We have the Tlicho Government that’s in place and protected under law; we have many discussions ongoing about other groups working on self- government packages. So what we need to do is to sit down with them and come up with a plan, if that means holding, for example, as we have in the past, a constitutional working group. When we did that back in the 13th Assembly, we did it

with an idea of what might be out there. We now have some parameters of what is out there. But I think, again, the simple fact is when we, as individuals, went to the electorate, there was no line for an aboriginal person, non-aboriginal person and someone that moved to the North and called it home; we all voted under the same premise about who are the people that will represent them. So there will be a need for a central government and how we work together with aboriginal organizations will continue to play a critical role in how we develop. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue for me is quite straightforward and it’s been one that I recollect raising numerous times in the 13th Assembly. Mr. Speaker, in my mind there has been, there is and there will continue to be, the need for a strong central government in the Northwest Territories to work closely with the aboriginal governments; to work closely with the 50 percent of the population that may not be covered by any particular land claim or self-government agreement; to be able to do fundamental things like pass territorial-wide legislation, redistribute wealth, negotiate with Ottawa on issues of concern to the whole Northwest Territories. This has to be done collaboratively. We’ve been talking around this table of how we better foster that relationship. I think that has to be part of this equation. However, very clearly there is a need for a strong central public government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Chair will recognize the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.