Thank you, Mr. Steen. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Delorey.

Thank you. I think we have 100 percent recognition in the gallery today.

-- Laughter

Welcome to the proceedings of your Assembly. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The question is directed to the Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the whole process of the intergovernmental forum process is finally getting off the ground. The federal government like the honourable Member has said, has settled finally on a negotiator. Mr. David Peterson, who used to be the Premier of Ontario and who is now doing legal work in Ontario has been appointed by Robert Nault, the Minister of DIAND to head up the federal government's negotiating team.

Mr. Peterson had already visited the Northwest Territories about a month ago for a meet and greet, to meet us and see who our negotiators are. There was work done during his visit. We have been ready. As the Government of the Northwest Territories we have our own negotiator, Hal Gerein. The Aboriginal Summit has Bob Simpson as their chief negotiator. They have their own team, we have our own team.

In meeting the federal government's team, the question of a full mandate came up. The process is to negotiate devolution from Ottawa to the Northwest Territories, the programs and services that still remain, as well as the resource revenue sharing, which is the net fiscal benefit to the Northwest Territories.

Upon meeting Mr. Peterson we learned that his mandate is to negotiate DIAND's programs and services to the Northwest Territories and we were hoping that he had the mandate from Finance Canada as well to deal with the net fiscal benefits.

Unfortunately, upon meeting Mr. Peterson we find that he does not have the mandate from Finance Canada so we do have a big concern here. The concern has already been relayed to federal Minister Manley last week by our Finance Minister, Joe Handley, and myself in Ottawa. We have to do some work with the Aboriginal Summit to see how we can move from here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Antoine.

Yes, we agree that this is absurd. If that is all we are going to be negotiating then it is probably going to be a show stopper because the Aboriginal Summit are a third party to this Intergovernmental Forum process and the intention here is to talk about the resources and the revenues that flow from these resources. The intention is to negotiate this along with the management regime of DIAND.

It is a serious concern to all of us. It is early in the process. We have only had one meeting with the federal negotiator and it is obvious that we have some work to do with our partners, the aboriginal governments to address this issue with the federal government to see if we can expand his mandate or else try to get Finance Canada at a table, at a single table, that would be our preference and that is what we are going to be pursuing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. The honourable Minister responsible for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Antoine.

Mr. Speaker, we had an initial meeting with Finance Minister Manley last week in Ottawa and following our initial meeting with the negotiator Mr. Peterson, we raised our concern that the Aboriginal Summit leaders are also involved in this process and the intention of this Intergovernmental Forum was to talk about devolution as well as resource revenue sharing. This was brought to the attention of Manley. He is fully aware of it. We intend to follow up with a letter from our Finance Minister to Manley to pursue that initiative.

This initial meeting, I think it was very positive. It got to his attention that we are very concerned about this and that we need to have someone from Finance Canada at this table along with David Peterson. Mr. Manley indicated that he will not delegate his authority of Finance Canada over to Canada to talk about net fiscal benefit, so there is a potential problem.

The other problem that we see is that in the Northwest Territories this Intergovernmental Forum is a government-to-government-to-government process with the federal government, the territorial government and the aboriginal governments. In the eyes of Minister Manley, his preference is to deal with the territorial government as a bilateral arrangement. That is a problem because our view here is that the aboriginal government want to participate equally with us with Finance Canada on this resource revenue sharing. So it is another area where we have some concern, a serious concern. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Final supplementary, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. I guess before we go any further I am going to start applying your rules, honourable Members. When it comes to questions, they should be short and to the point, concise and clearly put. The responses shall also be concise and clearly stated. I already have 11 people on my list and if they all ask three questions that take three minutes a piece we are going to exceed our time. Again, your rules, so I will abide by this. Please, in order to accommodate everyone let's have shorter answers, shorter questions.

The honourable Minister responsible for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue is an important and serious issue. This is something that we are undertaking with the federal government. I would like to have the opportunity to speak once again with Minister Nault on this issue. As well, I will be working with my colleagues in the Cabinet to address the issue with regard to bringing this matter to the attention of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet.

I just also want to further note that last night the Premier, the Finance Minister and myself had a meeting with the leaders of the Aboriginal Summit. It was a very good meeting and we discussed this issue thoroughly. We see that we have to work in partnership with each other to try to address this issue. We are in this together and we are dealing with Canada, and we need to coordinate our efforts and work closer on how we are going to address this issue that is a serious matter to all of us. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Premier, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Supplementary, Mr. Roland.