Transcript of meeting #1 for Territorial Leadership Committee in the 17th Assembly.
The winning word was work.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I can admit that there is homelessness and poverty in the communities and regions. I think that when the people migrate into Yellowknife, they are getting caught up in addictions and it is a deadly cycle. I think that we must provide a way to get them back home, because I truly believe that some of them do want to leave, but they just don’t have the resources or perhaps their family doesn’t have resources that would have a serious, hard look at this. As well, we have the Shelter Policy review and I believe it has to be the will of this Assembly to move that forward. Mahsi.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Michael Nadli Deh Cho
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The meeting of October 21st in Dettah with Aboriginal leaders was
historic. Without preceding that meeting, there seems to have been a sense of disunity and discord among the Northwest Territories leaders. I think building upon strength has always been my approach to ensure that we have a better North. In that way we have a better sense of unity, collaboration and consensus. What further steps will the candidates take to build a stronger relationship with First Nations in making the Northwest Territories a better North?
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank Mr. Nadli for raising that historic moment that we had last week.
There are a couple of ways that I would approach this. I spoke about it firstly was about establishing an Aboriginal devolution commission to first address the most important issue that is on the Aboriginal governments’ mind. Secondly, I did mention that I would establish an Aboriginal liaison office to work with Aboriginal governments as we move forward with this Aboriginal devolution commission. However, we do have to go further. We do have to include Aboriginal governments as full partners in this government and how do we do that. Mr. Yakeleya spoke once about an elders council, but to fully participate in Aboriginal government, I believe that we might have to have an Aboriginal governance council so that our government can recognize them as equal partners in this North and we can move forward to a strong united North. Thank you.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a number of things I think we have to do. I think we are very close on the Wildlife Act as a piece of groundbreaking legislation, both the process and the product that fully involve the Aboriginal partners with their hands on the pen to draft bills, something that is not done in any other jurisdiction. I think we also have to continually follow up on the meeting that we had last Friday. Collectively, we are ready to do that. I believe that some of the processes started in the 16th Assembly
are worth continuing, the regional Aboriginal leaders meetings, for example, and then I think we need to, as well, put back on the table the successes we have had with the Wildlife Act, the Water Strategy, Species at Risk Act. We know we can do good work together. We can deal with very complicated, complex issues, all of which I believe are tied, in fact, to devolution, like water. We can do this. I think if we have enough good will we can find a way forward. Thank you.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Bob McLeod Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the past three or four Assemblies all of the Premiers have had a process with Aboriginal leaders, either a bilateral process, or Northern Leaders’ Forum they called it, where they got together on a regular basis. I think, for this Assembly, with the meeting we had in Dettah, I think that we would talk to each individual Aboriginal government leader to get their ideas on where they think we can go from here. I think that it was a lot of work done on Creating our Future by Premier Roland. We want to see where that could lead to. I really think we need to have a follow-up meeting in Dettah. In the past we have had processes like the Intergovernmental Forum. I know they have that in the Yukon. That seems to work. I don’t know if we can see if there is potential for that here in the Northwest Territories.
There are other processes out there as to how we can work together with Aboriginal governments. I would like to see those explored. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
October 25th, 2011
David Ramsay Kam Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to congratulate all of the Members of the 17th Assembly on your re-election, some re-election, some new Members; and also to Mr. McLeod, Mr. Miltenberger and Mr. Menicoche, congratulations, again, for letting your names stand for the position of Premier of the Northwest Territories. I thank you for doing that on our behalf.
Mr. Chairman, I have a question. I guess it gets back to relationships. I know a lot of ground has been covered already today on relationship building with our Aboriginal partners here in the Northwest Territories and also with the federal government. I’ll just phrase my question this way: a lot of good work has been done in the past in building and fostering relationships with our neighbours to the east in Nunavut and to the west in Yukon and developing a pan-territorial approach to issues that are facing all three northern territories. I’d like to ask the Premier candidates what their strategy is for the evolution of that relationship that we currently have with our northern neighbours.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it’s going to be important to continue that arrangement. In fact, as we move forward on issues of significant importance like the Health Accord and the $42 billion negotiation, the three territories are going to have to work very closely together. It’s been a very successful arrangement so far. It’s because of that close cooperation between the
three territories and the help of Minister Aglukkaq that we in fact got the money to extend the funding for THSSI, the health programs that were going to sunset at the end of this year. Going forward I believe there’s going to be a need to intensify those kind of relationships. As we build up our presence in Ottawa, I think we’ll be able to be more effective not only with the government in Ottawa but all the other provinces and territories that come to Ottawa to do business where we have common interests. We also have many ongoing common interests, for example, with the smaller provinces where they tend to be very sympathetic to the struggles that we face.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to thank Mr. Ramsay for that question. We do have a working relationship with our neighbours, but I believe that we can show true leadership and formalize this relationship with Yukon and Nunavut so that we can have a stronger voice in Ottawa and present our case to Ottawa that the needs up here are unique, they’re different, and we stand united in them.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Bob McLeod Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Northern Premiers’ Forum is something that’s already been finalized. It’s something that the three territories have used very effectively to work together to get momentum from the federal government. I can cite many examples where we’ve worked together on things like Arctic sovereignty, Canada’s Northern House, tourism and so forth. Not only is it a forum that’s used to work together to get concessions from Ottawa, but it’s also used to prepare for meetings of the Western Premiers’ Conference and the Council of the Federation. It’s something that we build on, on a regular basis. The Council of the Federation meets on a semi-annual basis. The Western Premiers’ Conference meets on the same basis. It always helps to have a coordinated voice. Although Yukon already has devolution and Northwest Territories and Nunavut don’t, there are many areas that we can collaborate on and it’s a very important forum.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Glen Abernethy Great Slave
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to thank the candidates for answering our questions so fully today. We truly do appreciate it. I have one last question and then I think we’re pretty close to getting to the votes. I’m not sure; there might be more.
My question is on communication. There was frustration in the public over the past four years
based on the government’s ability to communicate and work with our residents. Many feel that when public consultations were held, they were not truly consultations but more information sessions. The same is true for public hearings. In my opinion, public consultations, information sessions and public hearings are different things. Each has its place and its purpose. My question is: could you define in your words these different processes and outline when each of them should be used, and tell me as Premier how you will ensure that this government uses these processes to work with our residents and partners in an effective way so that our residents and partners feel engaged and listened to?
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Bob McLeod Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Communications is a very critical part of how we all work together. As somebody mentioned, communication is a two-way street. Whatever messages you get out there, you have to make sure that whoever is receiving it understands it. I think Marshall McLuhan said the medium is the message. I think that in every, depending on what it is that we’re consulting on – obviously legislation is something that’s very important – that we need to make sure that the public is aware, when people are coming in to seek their input, where the hearings are going to be held and how their issues are going to be addressed. I think on policy issues this is something that we need to agree upon.
I’ve heard Members say that whenever we go out we should have a very clear policy that we’re pushing. Other people in the communities say, well, you’re supposed to come here and listen to us, don’t tell us what you’re going to do, we’re going to tell you what to do. I think we need a clearer understanding of that.
We have a government consultation policy that I think should be required reading for everybody here. If you haven’t had input into it, you should identify what you don’t agree with there. I think whatever we do in consensus government, that’s what we do is consult, consult and consult.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
Michael Miltenberger Thebacha
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Mr. McLeod indicated, we have a policy which has helped guide us. If it needs review in the minds of the Members, then we should look at that. There is a river of information the goes out from government on a daily basis from all points on the compass, from all the different departments. That’s a fairly standard process. I believe the Member is talking about all the political communication that goes on by us as Cabinet, by the Members, by the
government in terms of legislation and policy. That is going to require every piece of work that we do should have a communication plan to it that will identify exact intent and purpose. We have to make sure that we coordinate with our committees so that we do business in a cooperative way. As equal importance among the departments, we have to make sure that we have a coordinated network of communication so that we have a consistent message, an effective message, a message that reflects the direction and will of the Assembly.
Questions By Members
Election of the Premier
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