Mr. Minister. General comments or questions to the Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With a couple of the specific initiatives that the Executive has launched on here, I must indicate my support for the intergovernmental forum. It has been my experience, in watching and participating in Northwest Territories political development, the most positive and encouraging signals that I have ever seen at one time are happening right now. I fully support the initiatives that the department is taking to prepare and build capacity for that.

There is one aspect of the plan though, or of the budget, that I would like to pursue. My colleagues have already gone down this path. I would like to follow down it as well. On regional community affairs, Mr. Chairman, what I am a bit concerned about is duplication, or crossover, with other existing mandates or responsibilities. In the paper that was just circulated, which gives us a bit of a job description here, is the director of regional co-ordination. I get the sense preparing for transition to self-government will be one of the mandates of this job. I think it is a very good one, capacity building.

I do see a lot of overlap here with some existing roles, like the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is now playing and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has in negotiating land claims and self-government, perhaps in the role of the intergovernmental forum itself and in areas where it is going to be involved in this.

From my perception, Mr. Chairman, there may even be a fourth area that would be mandated in some fashion or other to deal with transition from this government to self-government. Is it necessary at this time? That is my question, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. A question to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his very positive comments in regard to the possibility that these functions within Executive for regional community affairs may lead to duplication in what is happening in Municipal and Community Affairs.

The Department of the Executive always provides overall co-ordination for all departments. We know that in the Beaufort Delta, the Deh Cho, and the Sahtu, there is no overall coordination capacity available at this time.

When a person goes to the Sahtu, for instance, you cannot go to one person that can give you an overall view of what is happening across departments within the Sahtu. You have to go to Yellowknife to really get that. Even then, you would have to go to each individual department to do it. It addresses a real need for and the vacuum left by the elimination of the regional director positions a few years ago.

We know that as the Executive, we need to provide overall coordination. We have the Beaufort Delta that is negotiating for a regional form of government. We have the Dogrib self-government negotiations preparing to see established a regional form of government and operation. We know the Deh Cho is speaking of a regional form of government. The Sahtu has asked for regional autonomy for some years. All these things tell us as a Cabinet, as a government, not only as Ministers but I think as Members of the legislature as well, we require a paper at some time that would scope out what is happening out there right now, and some considerations we should be taking note of that will compel us to say we need to do something.

Perhaps a paper will outline some ways in which we could support and prepare for these eventual realities. If it did not, that is what I see these positions being assigned to do.

I was part of the former Cabinet, but I do not recall exactly what was intended for these people. I do know that is what we intend to do. It is a major piece of work that we are going to be undertaking here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden, any general comments?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My thanks to the Minister for that answer. I would like to explore a bit of the communications side of the additional positions. If I had my information correct, and this is from some briefings we have had over the course of the last few weeks, Mr. Chairman, I understand there are now four existing positions attached to the Executive with a purely communication job description or mandate. There is one that is attached to the Legislative Assembly.

The budget would indicate that two or more communication positions are going to be taken on. If I have my information correct, Mr. Chairman, from the point of view of the residents of the Northwest Territories, that amounts to seven communication people attached largely, if not exclusively, to political and legislative information and communication.

Quite frankly, if I have my information correct and I stand to be corrected, this seems to be quite excessive for the size and scope of what we have got going, as broad and exciting as we may perceive it to be.

I think we are going overboard in an area and I would challenge the department's requirements for this number of positions at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Minister Kakfwi.

Mr. Chairman, I will ask Liz Snider to explain.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Ms. Snider.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is in regard to the regional and community relations positions. As you know, in the past there were positions known as the regional directors in most of the regions. Those were eliminated as part of the cuts to the 13th Assembly while dealing with the deficit.

Yet I see regional coordination mentioned, but I do not really see any individuals on the ground in the specific regions here. It seems to me that it is going to be centralized in Yellowknife again. I would just as soon as see them at the regional centres where we have an array of different positions, but nobody there to coordinate on the ground. I am just wondering why that was not considered? If it has been, how do you see this working in the coordination at the regional centres to ensure they work closer together?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is a very good question. We know the regions want to have increased say over how programs and services are delivered and resources at the community and regional level are best utilized. We know that some function like a regional director, coordinating regional or executive function is being requested by a number of regions.

What we have asked these people to do is to put a paper together for us, for myself and then eventually for Cabinet. We have offered to share it with the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development, for them to have an idea what is being considered for regional organizing.

I think eventually every Member of the Legislature will want to engage in it because it is going to have some profound implications for the future of the government as we know it. We need to be clear amongst ourselves where we stand on issues of a central government, how strong you want the central government to be, what are you willing to recognize at the community and regional level and how allocation of resources should be made as well as the extent of the decision making.

We need to work at it carefully and present it in a way that meets the needs of the communities, yet does not make any commitments that will perhaps have regrettable implications for governments at the community and regional level or government at the central level. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering, at what point or time do we see the possibility of reinstating so-called regional directors in the communities? I think we should be developing from the ground up instead of from the top down. That is what it looks like. We are developing a new department, or through the directorship and coordination of it, at the central level.

What we are asking for at the community and regional level is that we would like to see it happen from within the regions. If anything, those positions should be developed in the regions so they will be more accessible. That way, we do not have just an administration role to play, but more of a coordination role.

What we see has happened is that we have taken all the powers away from the regions and communities and we still have it at the central agency. I think there has to be a change in philosophy here. We have to start putting more decision-making in the regions and allow them to not only manage, but coordinate what happens within the region and in the planning process here.

I find it astonishing, especially in my riding. There are a lot of dollars not put into the interim appropriation because of the so-called decision-making process. A lot of those decisions were made here in Yellowknife. But at the community level, it happened after the fact. They did not have a say in what was going to be in the interim appropriation. Will this eventually become a more regional based position than a central distribution office? Thank you.

Thank you. I believe a number of regions have some clear ideas as to how they see their regions operating and how government should function at the regional level. We know these vary as you go up and down the valley.

We also know that in some cases, the topic of self-government negotiations, as is the case in the Dogrib area as well as in the Beaufort Delta, is also an aspiration of the Deh Cho to find a way to become self-governing within their own region. Although we are not aware of the nature and the form that might take.

Again, we do not want to make any moves that would have implications we had not thought of beforehand. We are primarily asking for a paper to go to myself and then to Cabinet that would scope out the realities as we see them out there and identify some of the issues we have to take into account when we are looking at this merging political landscape.

We need to know what the financial implications are. We need to know how we can meet our needs as a government, as a central government meeting the needs of community regional governments, plus respect the self-government negotiations that are going on. Once we have a paper like that which puts it all together, it will be shared.

We are not going to impose anything on the regions. The regions have profoundly exerted pressure on our government to act. We are preparing to do that. It is not like we are trying to impose anything. There has been tremendous pressure on us to act and we are doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Regarding the intergovernmental forum, I see you have a position here. Is that a contract position which will be going out for sole-sourced contract or is that a position within the government? It looks like a contract position. Is that the case?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am not certain what position the Member is referring to.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the intergovernmental secretariat, you have a special advisory to Cabinet. Is that a negotiated position or is that someone on retainer or contract? Thank you.