This is page numbers 863 - 898 of the Hansard for the 14th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was chairman.

Topics

Minister's Statement 44-14(6): Specialist Negotiations
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 883

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Does the committee agree that Minister's Statement 44-14(6) is concluded?

Minister's Statement 44-14(6): Specialist Negotiations
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 883

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

---Agreed

Minister's Statement 44-14(6): Specialist Negotiations
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 883

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

With that, we will take a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

Minister's Statement 44-14(6): Specialist Negotiations
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 883

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

I would like to call the Committee of the Whole to order. We agreed to deal with Committee Report 12-14(6), Final Report of the Special Committee on the Implementation of Self-Government and the Sunset Clause. Mr. Antoine.

Jim Antoine Nahendeh

The special committee had a very challenging mandate in relation to the implementation of self-government. After considering several technical and legal issues, we decided to highlight some particular trends and issues which describe broad categories that will require future detailed study.

We took this approach for three main reasons: we had relatively little time to examine and report on all the specific details related to the complex self-government processes; our mandate required that we not interfere with negotiations or overlap with other processes such as the Intergovernmental Forum; and self-government negotiations are not complete so there is still significant uncertainty about the nature and scope of some of the emerging governance systems.

An overview approach therefore seemed to be the most appropriate way to go. Our recommendations are a starting point only. For convenience we began by recommending three basic additions to existing assembly and GNWT structures:

Mr. Chairman, at this point, we wanted to know if there were any other general comments from Members. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Mr. Braden.

General Comments

Bill Braden

Bill Braden Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a Member of this committee, I just wanted to make a couple of comments or highlights of things that really stood out for me as being a part of this work of this committee. It was especially interesting when it was formed back in the early days of this assembly because as a politician and somebody who has grown up in the North and watched our political systems evolve and change, I was very interested and supportive of the kinds of things that are going on in the Legislative Assembly, among self-government and First Nations and among municipalities in the NWT. So I was very personally interested in the topic that this addressed, which was how we are going to manage ourselves, if you will, as these various new structures are recognized and come into being. It was something that I supported very strongly as the mandate of this committee was being developed, that our job is not to come in and define what the answers should be or how many people should be involved or how many desks or how many telephones we are going to need to implement self-government. That is really not the purpose of this exercise and one that we dispensed with very early.

Rather, it was to help us to prepare ourselves to manage the changes that we know are going to come through the realization of self-government and, Mr. Chairman, the evolution of this institution, the Legislative Assembly and the Government of the Northwest Territories.

With the work of our staff and our researchers and the consultation that we did have, Mr. Chairman, I picked up a very useful perspective on self-government as it comes about in the NWT and that is we should be looking at these agreements and these negotiations and the deals that come out of it as it all comes down to some kind of piece of paper at some point, is beginnings. These are not final agreements, as we so often refer to in the course of our business. Rather they are the beginnings of new things and new ways of doing things and new opportunities.

The report also develops what we have called the five "Cs" or the words community, concurrency, consultation, coordination and cooperation as guidelines, if you will, or words that we should all be using as we think about how these new arrangements are going to become reality and how they are going to start to make a difference in people's lives.

I won't go into the details of those five "Cs," they are well outlined in the report, but page 20 helps illustrate why we are going to need to be more attentive to these ideas of community, concurrency and consultation.

This table on page 20, Mr. Chairman, outlines about 24 different powers, if you will, that our assembly has under the NWT Act and it contrasts that with some 42 different powers that are contained so far in the framework of this example of the Deh Cho First Nations. So I think it's a really good illustration that we are setting up these concurrencies, these potential conflicts and we also have to be mindful of the coordination and cooperation that I think everyone is going to need to make efforts to apply. That's at the federal, the territorial, the aboriginal and at the municipal level, Mr. Chairman.

When we first started looking at this and, with the assistance of ministries like Aboriginal Affairs, started to get a handle on just how complex and how diverse the arrangements are going to be among the different self-government agreements, it really looked like it was something that was unachievable. How are we going to work our way through this? There are so many different parameters. As we learned more about it and started to poke and probe and examine this from different directions, different angles and different points of view, I learned, Mr. Chairman, that this is something that we should not be daunted or intimidated by. As unusual and unique as it is in Canada, perhaps in the Commonwealth, what we have in this report are some tangible ways and approaches of moving to the next stages of doing our part as a Legislative assembly and a Government of a Northwest Territories. After all, we are party to these negotiations and these agreements. We have made commitments that we will need to live up to. This report gives us some tangible ways of how to approach those challenges and how to help make the dreams of the First Nations and a like a lot of people here in the NWT, how to help them become a reality in the years and the decades to come.

So I commend the recommendations of the report to the assembly as we will be getting into shortly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Thank you, Mr. Braden. General comments. Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Being a member of the committee, I don't want to abuse that privilege, but I just want to say a few comments about the tremendous experience that it has been for us to work on this committee. Maybe it's the wonderful speech that our colleague Mr. Ootes gave or it's the rain outside or it's the mood here for nostalgia. There is no question, for me anyway, there are many different aspects to the work of a politician and while we spend a lot of time dealing with the bread and butter issues about different funding programs and so on, I believe that the other side of the privilege and the opportunity we have as a legislator is to look at some of the larger questions that come our way and I do believe, as Mr. Braden said, that there are no others like this anywhere else in Canada or around the world. I think we are really breaking new ground here and we are doing things that have not been done before in the scale that is being done and in the numbers that are being done.

There is also the question, at the very beginning stage, this may be the first document that's been produced about the implementation of self-government although we know that this issue has been with us for many, many years. The one thing that kept coming to me that I really wanted to think about and made me think was the tremendous need out there on the part of the people for a lot of answers and information about what it means. The more I heard from the people, I realized we really needed a place for a conversation or a dialogue, a territory -wide conversation and dialogue, about what it would mean for us to live in a world of post-self-government implementation in the NWT.

As Mr. Braden stated, it's about a beginning, not about an ending of anything and I know that this will give it a good start for us to look at what the NWT would look like many years down the road. I think it became very apparent to us that these changes will not take place overnight, but it will be a process of incremental and step-by-step change and one that the Government of the Northwest Territories has to play an important role in getting ready and preparing our people for, along with the partnership of other governments.

So the image that I am going to leave you with is the fact that this is just the beginning, and it is a beginning of a process that would open up all sorts of challenges and questions and opportunities and to emphasize the need for a territory-wide conversation and dialogue about what all this means to us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Thank you, Ms. Lee. General comments. Mr. Antoine.

Jim Antoine Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since there are no more general comments, I am just going to go right into recommendations.

Mr. Chairman, our first recommendation is based on our view that the Legislative Assembly will need to monitor the implications of self-government agreements on an ongoing basis. Self-government agreements will be negotiated and implemented over many years. As each agreement comes into effect, there will be a need for adjustments in the way the Assembly and the GNWT conduct their business. Therefore, this should be reflected in the structure and mandate of the standing committees.

Jim Antoine Nahendeh

Mr. Chairman, I have recommendation one: I move that this committee recommends that the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures be given responsibility for monitoring and reporting on the implications which implementation of self-government agreements will have on the powers, structures and procedures of the Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Braden.

Bill Braden

Bill Braden Great Slave

Mr. Chairman, similarly the GNWT, the Government of the Northwest Territories could, in our view, provide a more coordinated and comprehensive approach to implementation of self-government. In our deliberations, we had the benefit of reviewing the Deloitte & Touche report on headquarters structures. We agreed with their analysis and recommendations in this regard. In particular, it is our view that the significant potential changes in the relationship between the Assembly/GNWT and the communities warrants more planning and communication efforts.

Bill Braden

Bill Braden Great Slave

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee recommends that the GNWT formally designate a sole point of accountability for developing a comprehensive action plan for implementation. This department, ministry or agency, should prepare the GNWT and NWT communities for implementation of self-government agreements and should oversee this transition within the regions and communities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Braden.

Bill Braden

Bill Braden Great Slave

In addition to the assembly and the GNWT dedicating more effort to understanding and planning for the potential implications of self-government, we believe many of the changes that will flow from implementation of self-government will require innovative approaches to the development of policies, laws, programs and services. New approaches will also be required to coordinate and cooperate in delivery and enforcement. For this reason we think that ongoing research and study by an objective institute or think tank could benefit northern governments and help in this innovation.

Bill Braden

Bill Braden Great Slave

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee recommends that a cooperative, arm's-length research body or think tank should be created which is dedicated to the study of governance systems and practical operational issues associated with the implementation self-government agreements in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

The motion is in order. Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I may, I would just like to comment on this motion because when one reads it for the first time, it seems very broad and academic in its thinking. The motion comes from the experience the committee has had, which we have stated already, is groundbreaking, in terms of numerous aboriginal self-government agreements that are being negotiated and the implementation that will be in effect. There are tremendous writings and reportings that have been done on that over the years, the first one on implementation. It has been studied for sure. In our efforts to get to it, we found that the materials and lots of studies are all over the Territories and all over Canada. As a jurisdiction that is engaged in something as novel and as groundbreaking as we are in the North, the committee felt that it's very important that we address our mind to having a central location, whether it's associated with Aurora College or any science institute or any places as such, that we should be proud of the kind of work we do here and the kind of ground we're breaking. It is worthy of studying and there should be some resources and ideas put into that area. So that is a little bit of background to the committee motion that I wanted to add for the consideration of the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair David Krutko

Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the motion.