Mr. Arvaluk.

Mr. Speaker, I apologize, I do not have the list of these names with me right now. I will inform the Member of the names of who they are, and what positions they are in. I do not have that information with me, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Yes, I think I can wait for the names. I can give you the names, if you need them.

---Laughter

The Minister, in his response mentioned that these positions, and these individuals are part of the department's human resource plan. I would like to ask the Minister, where do aboriginal employees fit within this human resource plan, or are they even part of the plan in terms of hiring them for senior management positions?

Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The aboriginal employees under the, you might say the Northern Initiative Program, make a higher priority for those positions, when they are qualified or are able to be trained to fill these positions.

Oral questions, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. If these were director positions, or senior management positions, why were they not advertised publicly for all people in the Northwest Territories to compete for?

Mr. Arvaluk.

Mr. Speaker, I thought I already answered that question by stating that the appointments are reassignments, one secondment and two appointments, made to honour educational accomplishments to employees. These are the legal responsibilities that we have to those employees as I stated earlier. Thank you.

Oral questions. Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister responsible for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources in regard to the Northern Accord. I have been told that the status of negotiations on the Northern Accord has been suspended with the federal government. At the present time, since 1988, there was an enabling agreement to formulate, or bring about the Northern Accord regarding natural resources.

This is devolution of jurisdiction from the federal government to G.N.W.T. in terms of the ownership and management of natural resources in the N.W.T. I understand, since 1988, there have been negotiations and at this point I have been told that these negotiations have been suspended. I was wondering if the Minister responsible could explain to the House the status of negotiations on the Northern Accord at this time? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Mr. Speaker, the negotiations have not been suspended. I believe that my statement here said that they were not going very far in terms of a package that I felt would be acceptable, financially, to the people of the Northwest Territories. We have settled almost all points, but the financial area is one where we are still having discussions on.

Recently we accelerated the discussions to the Prime Minister's level again saying that we are just not gaining any momentum. The problem with the federal government is that this funding, the financial part of it is new money. Certainly since the finalization of the Norman Wells agreement with the federal government, the federal government has had an increase of $50 million, approximately a year from those resources from Norman Wells.

So we are having a bit of an argument that rather than looking at it as new money, it is money that they have acquired since the agreement to pay resources from Imperial Oil has been going to the federal coffers last year. So we have accelerated those discussions once more. The Minister of Finance has already brought that up with the federal Minister of Finance, Mr. Mazankowski about two weeks ago.

It seems in the last couple of weeks there has been some movement. They have not been suspended. I just made the statement and wanted to be completely honest with you that in the areas that are expressly important to us, in take-overs or any type of additional responsibilities, that the financial resources be there and that is the area that we are having extreme difficulties with.

Oral questions. Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This whole area of Northern Accord is extremely important to a lot of people in the north, especially aboriginal people who have been negotiating land claims and so forth. Basically this is what it is based on, land and resources.

This Northern Accord deals specifically with resources on the land, and where I come from, the region that I represent, they are very much interested in this whole aspect of it. It seems to me that there is very little information of exactly what this Northern Accord is going to look like. I knew that the First Nations were party to the Northern Accord at one time and I was wondering how much involvement do the aboriginal groups have in these negotiations at this present time? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

In developing the Northern Accord the principles of the accord and the parameters of the accord, all the aboriginal organizations leadership have been involved. All the information that we get is continually flowed to them. The reasons why we have not had any meetings lately is because there has not been any significant movement that we can say, let us convene a meeting and discuss these new principles, a different aspect of dealing with this or the broader parameters.

All of the organizations have the up-to-date information. If there have not been ongoing meetings this is basically because there has not been any movement to change the situation from last year. I know that the department on invitation has gone to communities to explain what is in the accord, and they are certainly open to those suggestions or any invitations on that matter if various communities want to have more information, because it has not been distributed to them, or they feel that there is something different than what was negotiated last year. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Looking at the previous transfer agreements such as Health and other departments, I am very leery about this whole area because that is the basis of a lot of different groups and their land claims. The way it is going we hear that it is suspended, and it is going slow. With the lack of information that is coming forth, I am very concerned at this time that the people that take the land as theirs are not directly involved in this whole process, except for consultation purposes.

We do not know whether our input in this consultation process is taken very seriously. I was wondering if there is any way of having aboriginal groups more directly involved in this whole process, rather than just a consultation process? Thank you.

Ms. Cournoyea.

Well, Mr. Speaker, I can explore that. Right now there is not much going on, but we can bring people more up-to-date. One of the things for sure is that the accord itself, and the final package, will have to go through the normal process in the Legislative Assembly and will be deliberated here. So in terms of feeling that something will be signed off, or people not knowing about the final contents, that will not be done.

We will be dealing with it more through the process. It will come, because there are financial implications through the Standing Committee on Finance. It will come through the committee structure, it will also go to this Legislative Assembly. Because there is not much movement and we have agreed on the parameters with the aboriginal organizations, and really what we are dealing with right now are the technicalities of the financial arrangement.

If that gets settled, certainly that will go back to have a revisiting on how good the package is, or if it meet everybody's needs. If we have the protection that we do not get caught in getting a deal, and then it effects our other budgeting processes, it will come through all of the processes. I will look to see whether we can update the organizations and see if we can give them more information or more of what is going on.

I know that they are all busy and when there is no movement, I do not want to pretend to them that we are making further movement, because we are really just arguing with the federal government right now on resources. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am sure that we are going to go through the processes later on, but it would be a lot easier if people that are closest to these resources are involved at an earlier state than later on in the process, because with the comprehensive claim policy it does not permit control of ownership of all the subsurface interest, and there is going to be joint roles in government management bodies, and these sort of arrangements will effect the structure on the future constitutional development in the north.

It is a bigger issue than just leaving the Northern Accord with the people negotiating, because I feel it is going to affect all of us in the long run. Personally I would like to see more involvement at this earlier stage than later on, because the people have to understand what they are doing as it is their resources to begin with.

So I was wondering if there was any way that this could be done? There is a question there some place. The Deh Cho Regional Tribal Council are very much aware of this particular concern since we are not negotiating in our area on the claim at this present time. Perhaps later on there might be some sort of an arrangement. At the present time, we do not know how long this is going to go on. So, if they could somehow be involved in this thing at the earlier stage that would be better. Thank you.