Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aboriginal organizations have invested a lot of time and a lot of money in regard to negotiating land claim agreements where they had to pay back to the
federal government in excess of almost $9 million in the case of the Gwich’in. Almost $75 million is outstanding on the Dene/Métis claim.
Those dollars were paid back for negotiation. People assume negotiations were paid by the federal government; they weren’t. Those land claim agreements were there to improve the quality of life for those aboriginal organizations, the people they represent. In the case of the Gwich’in, we have invested tens of millions of dollars into the Inuvik regional economy. They have invested millions of dollars in the infrastructure by accommodating the offices for government departments or band councils or development corporations for infrastructure trade jobs to ensure that we have an economic footing for the Gwich’in members in the Inuvik region.
Yet we are totally being pushed out of every opportunity that seems to be appearingin regard to this government’s memorandum of understanding that we negotiated in good faith. We have land claim agreements that were negotiated in good faith, where the Government of Northwest Territories was at that table. They signed off on these legal agreements, but today they continue to totally ignore the economic well-being of those organizations and the people they represent when it comes to things such as office space in the Inuvik region.
Mr. Speaker, there was an office built here in Yellowknife. There was total outcry about the private sector in regard to a federal building that was being constructed here in Yellowknife. They, the federal government, took the responsibility on and sought an independent review to look at the market disruption in Yellowknife in regard to the private sector and the amount of retail space and the effect that this facility was going to have in the long term on market disruption in Yellowknife. But in regard to office space in Inuvik it’s basically full speed ahead. Never mind your tens of millions of dollars you invested buying up for the private sector in Inuvik to consider going into the retail business.
This government has an obligation — and not only an obligation but a fundamental right — to live up to the land claim agreements, the memorandum of understanding, and to ensure that there is an economic footing for the land claim organizations to move forward and improve the quality of life of their people.
With that, Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking questions of the Premier on this matter.