Mr. Chair, I was one of the negotiators in 1995 who was at the last negotiating table on devolution prior to the election of the 13th Assembly.
We were negotiating a devolution agreement which encompassed resource dollars going directly to the First Nations government. We were negotiating benefits by way of economic benefits, ensuring employment, contract service agreements. Those types of agreements were being negotiated into a northern oil and gas act for the Northwest Territories. So to assume that the aboriginal groups have a land claim, and if you open it, that’s the end of it…. The land claims group is clear that the devolution is the land claim that hasn’t been settled yet.
I don’t want to put words in the Premier’s mouth, but I think it’s important to realize that what the aboriginal groups got in their land claim is the flow-out of the Dene-Métis claim, which was part of the
1988 agreement-in-principle that gave the aboriginal groups royalties throughout the whole Mackenzie Valley. That is based on a percentage formula that was negotiated back then. But they still have the right to negotiate over and above that through the devolution process, and I think it’s important to realize that.
But, Mr. Chair, the thing that gets me is that negotiations aren’t cheap. We know that this government, for instance, is spending $1 million a year just trying to implement that process, yet I notice that the amount of money that’s in the budget for those types of talks, those types of negotiations, has drastically dropped, from $600,000 last year to $125,000 this year. So I’d just like to ask the Premier: exactly how much work do we see taking place with $125,000, knowing that these negotiations are not cheap? You need lawyers. You need basically to have people present papers, present positions. So realistically, what are we expecting for $125,000?