Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Lafferty on October 25, 2006, regarding the amount of resource wealth losses.
During the question, Mr. Lafferty asked for just a rough figure on how much the GNWT has spent on devolution and resource revenue sharing negotiations with the federal government over the past few decades.
Mr. Speaker, accurate numbers are difficult to report as negotiations have involved different governments and departments in different ways, and the true costs include both direct and indirect costs.
But since the Member is interested in rough numbers, I can advise that in the late '80s and early '90s, the GNWT was involved in the Northern Accord negotiations at a probable cost of one to two million dollars a year. Through the mid-'90s, the GNWT was spending approximately $600,000 annually on similar devolution-type negotiations, and since 2002 four GNWT departments have been allocated a combined total of $2 million annually for what today we refer to as devolution and resource revenue sharing negotiations. These costs include contributions to regional aboriginal organizations to assist with their participation in the negotiations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause