Thank you. General comments. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Premier has indicated, never before has this government had such a good working relationship with the Aboriginal governments. I applaud him for that and I hope I have played some small part in that; however, it seems to me that a really good way to keep up this good working relationship and perhaps to improve upon it is to recognize Aboriginal and treaty rights such as the right to not be taxed. What I would like to know is what the Premier means when he says he is going to work with Treaty 8 to assist them? Could he expand on that a little bit?

Thank you. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are doing that already and we have done that in the past, especially these last few days with their negotiations with BHP. We have talked, as a matter of fact as late as yesterday afternoon, to The Honourable Ron Irwin encouraging him to get on with the process of negotiating and getting the finalization of treaty land entitlements or comprehensive claims, whichever Treaty 8 choose to do. I am encouraging a speedy resolution of the claims in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate we are assisting the; however, that is just assisting them with the federal government. When is this government going to recognize the right?

Thank you. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it is on record that this government does recognize Aboriginal rights and treaty rights. We do our best to assist our own people in the Northwest Territories to move ahead to settle their claims. Like I have told the Member already, we have set up meetings with Grand Chief, Bill Erasmus, and we will be talking to them about the whole taxation issue, and talking to the federal government as well. I think the best way to assist Treaty 8 is to try to get a speedy resolution to treaty land entitlement or a comprehensive claim, whichever venue they choose to go.

Thank you. General comments, Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well I am glad to hear they are going to discuss taxes. I certainly hope that they are going to recognize and respect, as we say in this book here, we are going to do recognize and respect Treaty 8's right not to be taxed by this Government and I am also glad to hear that they are assisting with the Treaty negotiations, the Treaty travel negotiations, but I may not have the same idea that it is the best way to help them.

I think that certainly recognizing and respecting the Aboriginal and Treaty rights by not taking our people to court, and by not taxing them as their right indicates. I think that would be a long, long way to helping them and also to demonstrating that this Government, indeed, is respecting and recognizing Aboriginal Treaty rights. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are trying to avoid court cases and trying to get outstanding issues settled with Aboriginal Peoples throughout the north. Tax is one issue, there are some other issues, as well. I am still a firm believer that, and I talk to a lot of people, that the whole tax issue is going to be an issue they are going to negotiate with the federal government. That is part of the negotiations, right now. It is what my Chiefs tell me and some other people are saying the process, negotiations with claims, will help all the people, not just some individuals that may be lucky enough to have a job, or getting the tax-free benefits.

I believe the best venue to help Aboriginal People is trying to assist as much as we can and get the federal government back to the table with them. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, perhaps, the Premier is right. A claim would benefit everyone, not just the people that have jobs; however, there is two huge differences between negotiating negotiations for treaty land entitlement or for comprehensive claims. You do not come out of there with Aboriginal rights or treaty rights, you come out with a contract and an agreement that you negotiated. Aboriginal rights, treaty rights, already exist. They are constitutionally protected, and if we say we are going to respect them and recognize them, that is what we should do. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Premier.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to assure the Member that is what we are doing. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to, with the greatest of respect to my colleague, Mr. Steen, who is, much wiser than myself, on the history on the Northwest Territories. I recall history myself, and I have recalled what has happened with economic development projects in the Northwest Territories. We can see the economic development from the some of the mining industry, for example, Echo Bay Mines, or Lupin, or Nanisivik, or other mining companies. If that is economic development then we do not need it. It is complete fly over economy. What is the north benefitting from? The jobs are all coming out of the south, a 727 touches down at the mine and lands in Edmonton, is that development? I say no.

What development is, is people living in the north, investing in the north. If they are going to take our resources out of the north, Mr. Chairman, yes, I did take a strong stance with BHP, and I still take that same stance, whether it be Kennecott, or any other mining company, or any other developer.

We as northerners have to benefit from the resources that are being taken out of the land. We have seen many, many, times in the past. We had the whalers here. They took away all the oil, what did they leave? Not a lot. We had the Hudson Bay Company. They are big time developers. What did they leave, besides a few beads and trinkets. You have other developers, as well, that came into the north and left without leaving anything, so we stuck to our guns and we came out three weeks ago and said yes, if you are going to develop the north, you are going to live up to the public promises you made.

You guaranteed jobs, you guaranteed to our businesses in the north to get service contracts. So we are trying to assist them to live up to their word. I think we have been very successful in doing it. There is no way we are trying to scare out the mining sector. We welcome all mining development with open hands and we will help them down that road as long as they are ready to hire and buy in the north and support northern business, and northern people. That is not asking too much. These are our resources. They are right out our back door. So we expect that, and rightfully so. I completely agree with Vince. There is more to economic development than Yellowknife and BHP Diamonds, there is a lot more than that in the north. We have to work with the other communities in other regions to get economic development going and we are committed to doing that.

We have to work on the renewable resource economic development, whether it be saw mills, wood, wildlife, or fish, or whatever. As far as what the Premier's Panel is doing, and I thank the Members, for the good people they sent to the Premier's Panel, I thank them all because they are all excellent people that are volunteering their time to give us some advice.

The first meeting that we had, was basically, this is where the Government is and these are the problems we have. It was a meeting to let them know where we are as a Government. The next meeting we started talking about more issues about what we have to do as a Government. The major thing that came out of that meeting is that we have to get off our butts as a Government and move ahead getting our people trained to take advantage of economic development that is happening.

Now they have asked for quite a bit of information. We have met twice since our Premier's Panel has been in place. So I am expecting some strong recommendations coming out of there in the very near future and I will be pleased to supply Members with their briefing on that last meeting, or the last two meetings, if you would like that. I will tell you one thing, it is a panel that is composed of good business people that have invested in the Northwest Territories that are willing to contribute to the Northwest Territories. When they came on, all the meetings are on weekends, because these people are far too busy to take time off their companies during the week. I thank them because they gave up their weekend when it is normally spent with their families.

So, I thank you for your excellent recommendation, Vince, on the person you sent from Tuk, he has been very active as well as the other Members, and I will share that information with Members of this Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Barnabas.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to report progress.

There is a motion to report progress and a motion...are you making a motion?

I move to report progress.