Mahsi, Mr. Lafferty. There are no further general comments. We are on page 2-131, activity summary, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, operations expenditure summary, $7.328 million.

Okay. We are on page 2-131. Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that, whenever possible, the GNWT should actively seek to hold self-government and land claim negotiations in the relevant regions and to report back to the Accountability and Oversight committee on progress during review of the 2007-2010 draft business plans.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. Oh, just one second. I am getting ahead of myself. We are going to distribute that motion.

Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Briefly and for the record, this is not a new item before committee or before this department or its predecessors. A tremendous resource of time and skill are brought into these negotiations, but we have seen very unproductive time and huge amounts of money have been spent travelling to different parts of the country to continue negotiations. I know that this same plea from committee has come up in several other previous years, that if we are going to be negotiating for the land and the people of the Northwest Territories, why is it not that at least the vast bulk of the negotiations could not occur on our own soil? That is the intent of this. This happened before. We continue to press this case with our own department and recognizing that we also want them to carry that message to Canada and the people we are negotiating with. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Thank you, committee. The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause

Activity summary, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, operations expenditure summary, $7.328 million.

Thank you. Page 2-134, activity summary, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, grants and contributions. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I want to again ask the Premier here, as the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, in terms of the historical funding of Metis Nation grants. We have a huge budget here but, I believe, Mr. Chair, when you break it down, it comes out to $13,000 per Metis organization. I just want to confirm that first, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Handley.

Thank you. Yes, Mr. Chair. That works out to roughly 13,000 and some dollars for each of the locals. Mr. Chair, that is an amount of money, the $225,000, that used to be paid as a grant to the Metis Nation of the Northwest Territories. When it was disbanded, then the agreement from our government was to continue to make that fixed amount of money,

$225,000, and pay it out to the locals. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if you break down the $13,000 to the number of days per month for operation, so I am not going to get into that type of a discussion here. I want to ask the Premier, is there any type of consideration by his Cabinet or this government to certainly increase the $13,000 to what is now, some consideration in the future to properly consider this budget line item in the future for proper funding of a major organization such as the Metis Nation core funding? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chair, there have been individual requests for additional money, but the agreement made, when the NWT Metis Nation disbanded, was for the $225,000. We have not had the resources to be able to consider increasing that since, but we have stayed with the commitment we made at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Handley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister's explanation on the reasons why they are not able to increase the funding even though those resources are limited and there has been a request for them. I am not too sure how we ask this in terms of this Minister gave us some reasons why they are not able to increase the funding for the Metis Nation locals here. I guess we have increased the funding in other areas. This one here, in the whole goals or vision of this Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs for $13,000, how do you expect to have a good relationship with the Metis locals and improve it? These are the forgotten children, I guess, forgotten families of the native or aboriginal organizations. You say this in your vision and your statement of goals. Something does not coincide here, Mr. Chair. I am having a hard time, Mr. Minister. I understand the lack of funding, the resources, yet we increase the funding for our own budget and that. We give a major Metis local organization down the valley this type of dollars, this $13,000; they should be really ashamed of themselves trying to promote these goals. I really don't understand. That is what I am getting at.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Handley.