Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a guide that we use when discussing HR plans with departments. I'd be happy to share that with the Member so that he has a clear idea of what it is that we have.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Miltenberger.

Final question. Could the Minister tell us, or does he know how many departments, in fact, have HR plans? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe Health and Social Services; MACA; FMBS, I'm not sure if theirs is completed yet; corrections; Transportation has theirs underway; and Stanton's will flow out of the review that's happening at Stanton.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Next on the list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to ask the Minister in terms of a follow-up to Mr. Ramsay's questions in terms of the aboriginal self-governments and the plans of meeting the aspirations of the self-government negotiations and fulfill their commitment or obligations that they're going to be signing off in terms of having their own government up and running. Is the department working with them so that they're meeting their aspirations for them? I'm afraid, Madam Chair, that once these deals are signed off that they're going to be left with some giddy up and go sort of thing of getting their act on the road to implement those negotiations, implement those agreements that were negotiated to the spirit and intent of what was negotiated in terms of capacity building and having communities run their own government. I'd like to ask the Minister in terms of plans by our government how this fits into the overall scheme of the human resources strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We cooperate with people at self-government tables by making sure that we can help them understand what happens in human resources, how you have to administer positions, what sorts of positions you're looking at. Ms. Woodward has, for instance, participated at the Deline table to help them understand what they need to know in terms of how we administer human resources. Then, of course, there has to be some discussion at the table between the feds, ourselves and self-governments about the overall administration of human resources. There are still some things that aren't clear that have to be negotiated, so there's quite a bit of work, actually, there to do in that end. In terms of what the actual nuts and bolts are, we're making sure that they're given that information, then it's going to be a situation of negotiating authorities.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in terms of the continuing negotiations of the human resources issue and the self-government agreements, are the communities such as he made reference to the Deline community, is that community given the support that is needed to say this is what we're negotiating, we've finished this negotiation, this clause, and now we want to start providing support for our people to implement this part of the agreement? Or are they waiting until the last chapter has been negotiated, the last clause has been signed off on and then say here is your negotiated self-government agreement, here is your government, and then they would implement their agreement with the governments involved? Are they getting support at this time to do some pre-planning, pre-training, and pre-career counselling in terms of that kind of initiative? Or is it a situation where they're waiting until the final deal is signed and then the human resource programs, the department here is signed off to satisfy the people in Deline?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We're not into the implementation phase, so it's not a situation where there would be that support that the Member is asking about at this point. Our job is to make sure that the self-government entity understands what it takes to provide human resources to the staff that they have once they take on the programs. At this point, we make sure that they understand what it takes to deliver human resources when they take on the programs.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Minister is right in terms of his support staff is just going into the community. Again, he made reference to the Deline self-government to understand what it takes. I think, Madam Chair, I'd like to move it a little further in terms of going beyond... I think they know what it takes to run the Human Resources department and I'm asking...I know when they speak of implementation that it is a whole new ball of wax that when you get into implementation of the self-government agreements I'm asking if there's some consideration in the agreements that the community of Deline gets some support in terms of beginning some of the training, otherwise they'll be catching up on some of these issues. I'm not too sure how other agreements are dealt with. I know, for sure, the Tlicho are certainly far ahead of us in this area. Is there some discussion with this government as to how the Tlicho is doing with their taking over of some of the program? What are some of the things that we need to learn from the Tlicho in terms of their taking over the human resources? What are some of the things that we need to be aware of in the Sahtu when we take over our government here in terms of how do we implement it? What are some of the things we're running into? We want to avoid some of those pitfalls that we don't know about. We should look at some of these things, otherwise we're going to walk down the same path as the Tlicho people and, you know, I don't know, I haven't talked to my honourable colleague over here in terms of what's happening in the Tlicho region. That's what I'm getting at and I hope I'm conveying this clearly. That's what I wanted to ask the Minister as to create a little smoother path for our people to take over the HR department in regard to the self-government things. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We are looking at how things are working in the Tlicho region and our staff are working with their staff to discuss what we've learned from the operations to date. We'll certainly take what we learn there and bring it to the table in other regions. The goal is to, obviously, make sure that the transfer of ability to do the job is smooth. We want to make sure that as many employees as possible are offered positions that they want to take with the self-government entity and that the transfer for those who chose to move to the self-government entity is very smooth for those who do. It's in our interests, our staff interest, the self-government's interest, all to work together to try and make it as smooth a job as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Yakeleya.

Certainly, again, I would agree with the Minister, Madam Chair, in terms of the smooth operation and transition from one government to the next government...(inaudible)...government-to-government transition and the negotiations are happening in that sense. Madam Chair, I say this because early in my life in terms of working with the Tulita Self-Government Secretariat that our community wanted to put forth a human resource strategy in terms of what will we need and things that we will require in terms of taking over some of our programs as we negotiated and look at some of the things on a basic level as to what things that we need to get prepared for. We didn't receive much support from either government. That's why I'm saying this to the Minister. I'm looking at this type of a strategy here, because we did get no support from the feds or the territorial government. So I'm wondering if the Deline self-government is running into that type of a situation. I know the government has to follow a process, they have to follow a lead based on the advice from the staff members, but if the community wishes to do things a little different, than what we are already offering as a government here. That's what I'm looking at, the respect that we need to sometimes look at the communities who are going to be taking over or setting up their own governments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I interrupt this normally scheduled program to announce that Brendan Green has won gold in the 15-kilometre cross-country ski...

---Applause

Our first medal for the Canada Winter Games. Okay, who was talking?

---Laughter

Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In terms of where we're moving at self-government tables, as the Member will be aware, a lot of the responses have to be determined by the tables themselves. With the Deline table, we're at a situation where we're providing advice, but there's still some issues around administration of labour in the self-government entity that have to be resolved before we even know what things are going to look like afterwards. So it's not something that we can go in right now and say here's what you have to do and we know this is how it's going to look, because some of the issues are still a bit up in the air and will only be solved after some discussion between the federal government, the self-government and the GNWT. We're not totally there yet. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister Dent. Next on the list I have Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to pick up where my colleague, Mr. Yakeleya, left off in terms of talking about what will happen to our public service as we know it today. If we look at the Northwest Territories and our requirements on human resources, 15 or 20 years from now it's going to look much different. The important thing, and the Minister talked about this, you are observing what is happening with the Tlicho Government. Have you got a policy? Have you got a plan or are you developing a model that's going to enable the Government of the Northwest Territories to work with other self-governments? That's the work I talk about, trying to get the government to understand and appreciate that that type of work has to take place. This is the first I have heard of it, Madam Chair, that the department has actually been involved with the Tlicho Government. I think we need a plan and we need to develop a model or framework or whatever the case may be to coordinate our efforts with aboriginal self-governments. We have to build capacity at the community level and we have been doing a bad job of that. We have to get better at it and I would like to ask the Minister how we do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dent.