We are on page 2-27, Madam Chair? I'd like to move that this committee recommends that the government remove the funding associated with proposed socio-economic impact fund senior advisor position.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Your motion is in order and I'll just wait for the motion to be circulated.

Okay, the motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I know this is an issue we've beat around like a piñata the last little while and it's, at the very least, I think, what this motion tries to get across to the government, this $500 million isn't coming into government coffers of the GNWT, it's going directly to communities, and at the very least I think the federal government has an obligation and a responsibility to pay for this position. The Government of the Northwest Territories shouldn't be paying for a new senior advisor position to deal with this funding. That cost should be borne by DIAND and the federal government, not the GNWT. For that reason alone, I think that's why I support the motion. I think we should put the onus back on the federal government where the money is coming from and get them to pay for the position. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion. Mr. Braden.

Yes, I would speak in favour of the motion. Given that this social impact fund, as I understand it, is subject to at least two things out of our control, one of the decisions to go ahead with the pipeline and then the other is the actual sign-off of this at the federal government level. I understand that the new Conservative government is onside with this, but we're still a couple of steps away from realizing this and I think we're also some time away, I would think at least another year away. So I do not see the practicality of bringing in this position now, and I think, as Mr. Ramsay has stated as well, if this is a task associated with getting good mileage out of the socio-economic impact fund, then why can't the cost of this be funded from within the fund itself? Part of the devolution deal we're going to get, right? Okay, that's it, Madam Chair. That's my comment. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I too will support this motion mainly because I think it's when were down the road before we can actually get that SIF, and also because we do have an office in Hay River that's going to cater to oil and gas. So at this point in time, Madam Chair, just for the record, I will support the motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. To the motion.

Question being called. All those in favour of the motion? All those opposed. The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause

Activity summary, executive offices, operations expenditure summary, $6.596 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Madam Chair, I wanted to ask the Premier here in terms under provides strategic advice on matters that have government-wide implications in terms of has the Premier in his discussions with the other departments, Ministers, looked at a model similar to Nunavut where they have the traditional Inuit knowledge as an important part of their government and they actually formed some type of an advisory council with the elders of Nunavut to be part of their government's structure in their territory? Is there any type of discussion that may come out of this government in terms of our seniors or elders in the Northwest Territories that could follow some form of lead, I guess, or follow some form of model that the Nunavut government has structured in their place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our government has not looked at that. Years ago, though, probably three or four governments ago, I remember an exercise that was undertaken to look at it and when an estimate was done of the cost of creating an elders' council, then the decision was made to not go that route. It's not just the cost of bringing together people, but it's also the cost of implementing the recommendations and following through. It could become very expensive. Instead, Madam Chair, what we have done is we have gone the route of the Circle of Northern Leaders, as well as encouragement to all of us to get out to the communities and consult. So we have things like the pre-budget consultation process; we have the Circle of Northern Leaders; we have our travel to the communities and many other forums where we have input. But, Madam Chair, on the notion of the Circle of Northern Leaders, we haven't looked at that. I will take a look at how it is working in Nunavut, though, and get more information. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier Handley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Handley is correct, Madam Chair. When the Premier says that there's other avenues in course because of our budget and the situation where it does become a costly exercise implementing any type of traditional council or advisory council and I certainly will look forward to Mr. Handley's report after he does have some in-depth study on the Nunavut model and see how there's other avenues that we could involve elders, seniors who can be involved in our decision-making process. The Northern Strategy is one; the Circle of Northern Leaders is another. Certainly when the Ministers do come to our community or region, they do sit and talk with the elders. So I'm looking more, I guess, in a sense of an advisory council formalized, and again, you get into the cost factors. I'd certainly like to see some form of recognition is given to, maybe just once a year, just to see the elders, two from every region, just sit down with them on some government-wide, general-wide initiative direction in terms of how they see things in the future. They can give advice on the land, on the air, on issues such as the caribou or whatever. I know that the Ministers are doing that also, but it will be good for our government to involve elders at some point. It might be once a year to sit with the elders to get advice and direction. So they are very valuable, their traditional knowledge is very important and it would be good that this government supports this type of idea. So I guess that's what I wanted to ask the Premier. I'm not too sure if I can have him commit to do something, but he said he'll look at the idea and I would like to see if he could bring this idea forward to say it is a worthwhile exercise because we are following some of our tradition in the North here. So I think it would be a good thing. However, the Ministers know more about this type of work that they have to do and sometimes I'm not provided with all the details that it costs to get something like this going. So I want to leave that there, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Madam Chair, I made a commitment I would get more information on the Nunavut experience and how that's unfolding. I think we would want, as MLAs, to look very carefully at the creation of another body because it very easily could evolve into a senate and then all the trappings that go with that. It's just something that we want to look at very carefully. Meeting once a year with elders, that may be a possibility and it's something that we could discuss. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that will be a good start if we had some forum where we could meet with the elders at least once a year. I think that's a start. Those are the things that we have to look out for, and, as Mr. Handley has pointed out, it may lead up to a senate type. I'm not too sure where this goes, but that's part of the evolution of the Northwest Territories and I think that's in the future. So even to have a meeting once a year with the elders, I think that's a big, big step that I think the Premier will be thanked and will be very appreciated by the elders in the North about this type of move here. So it's a good suggestion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Just to the committee members, when you're asking questions and speaking, I'm having difficulty understanding your hand signals. Some of you go like this and I don't know if that means stop, I'm finished, or if that means I have another question. So sometimes I think I give you the floor again and you really don't want it. So if you want to speak again, if you don't want to speak again maybe you can just go like this and I'll know you're finished, because then we don't waste the time of giving you the floor again if you don't really want it and you just have to try and think of something intelligent to say. So thank you for that, if you could do that. Executive offices, operations expenditure summary. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Premier is well aware, I've spoken in the last little while here about my strong feelings on the resource revenue sharing and how I feel we're losing out big time here. I know the Premier shares some of the same feelings towards this, but my questions would be on the office of devolution. I'd like to know what the actual duties of this office are. Who does the actual negotiating on behalf of the GNWT? How many people are in this office, and if it would be possible to get a list of the workers in the office and a brief description of their duties, that would be really helpful to me because this is a subject now that I think leadership in the NWT is going to have to get very passionate about, because the longer we take, the more we lose and with the uncertainty of a minority government, we may be having another election in a little while and then we're back to square one again. I just want to be assured that we're not always going to be ending up back in square one with the changes in the federal government, especially with a minority government, and I'd like to make sure that this is something that we keep right on the front burner, on the front page, because this is something that we really need to have to start putting up a fight for here in the NWT because we're losing big time and the more I get educated on the numbers and the potential numbers we could lose, the amount of money we've already had go to Ottawa, the more and more that it's beginning to upset me. I'd like the leadership in the whole of the NWT to feel the same way. That way we can passionately go after what's rightfully ours. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Handley.

Madam Chair, there are two parallel processes moving here. One is devolution and the other is resource revenue sharing. The devolution is the transfer of responsibility and authority for those province-like responsibilities that the federal government, through DIAND, currently hold. Just on devolution itself, we're not that far apart. There are five outstanding items and they are all negotiable. We have a small staff who are responsible for doing the background work on the negotiation of those, and I'll ask Mr. McLeod in a minute to explain what they do, but we also have a lead negotiator, a fellow by the name of Hal Gerein who leads our negotiations; that's devolution.

On resource revenue sharing, Madam Chair, that's a separate process. It's linked together, but we could negotiate resource revenue sharing without necessarily taking on all the trappings of a province. So, Madam Chair, I have the same concern that the Member does, that there's a lot of money leaking out in the form of non-renewable resource revenues from this territory everyday and we're losing it. So we need to move ahead, in my view, quickly on resource revenue sharing as the first, most urgent requirement. Madam Chair, I have proposed to the federal government that we move quickly on that one, that we not necessarily have to wait for devolution in order to have our share of resource revenues. I would not want to take devolution without resource revenues, but I could take resource revenues without devolution. So, Madam Chair, we are moving quickly, as quickly as we can. I don't want to get into all the detail of where we're at, but I can say that the Prime Minister and the Minister at DIAND are very much on the same page, in my view, as we are at this time. I hope to see some progress fairly quickly on the resource revenue sharing side. Madam Chair, I'll ask Bob McLeod just to explain how many people are in the devolution section and what their roles are. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Mr. Bob McLeod.