Mr. Speaker, it just gets back to my first question. I’m not sure if the Premier heard the end of that first question, so I will ask that one again. I’m just wondering: who put the framework together for the Government of the Northwest Territories to be presented to the federal government?

Mr. Speaker, the Executive and a number of the other departments that have the information pulled this together. We worked with a number of other people who had access and could give us information on times, and we pulled that together. But it was pretty well done internally on this one.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Mr. Speaker, just to remind the government that Nunakput has all the oil and gas to drill that proposed pipeline. To the Minister of Finance: will the Minister agree to consult with Nunakput residents and organizations before he makes revenue decisions?

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, the work we’re doing will be brought forward, as I have committed to in the House, through the business planning process and further into the budget process, where there will be time for review and discussion. We have agreed to come forward and give the public the results of the round table and all the feedback we have received. That document is being worked on as we speak.

Mr. Speaker, he says he’s giving us enough time. I have a pretty big riding, and the travel times are out. I have to go travel for two weeks, so I hope he does give us enough time to present this to my constituents.

Mr. Speaker, we’re going to be timing the work we are doing. There are people working on it right now. We know the business planning is going to start in the middle of November. We would like to have as much of the information as we can have pulled together at that point to talk about what’s being proposed for 2009–2010. If I can refresh everybody’s memory, we are looking at year 2 of reductions, about $28 million or so.

As well, we are tasked and targeted with finding $10 million in new revenues. We will come forward with that work clearly laid out for the ’09–10 budget and the business plan. Further work will be laid out, but that will be for future years, in 2010–2011 and going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier in regard to my Member’s statement and the Premier’s sessional statement.

There are certain sections of the agreement where the government shall involve the Gwich’in in any devolution process. I’d just like to ask the Premier: exactly what consultation has taken place today with the aboriginal governments in regard to this proposal?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Mr. Speaker, as the Government of the Northwest Territories 16th Assembly took office, we set up a new arrangement with regional leadership. We hold four meetings a year where the regional leadership as well as the Government of Northwest Territories can put items on the agenda.

We have been having discussions at that table about devolution and resource revenue sharing, and again this opportunity came up. I made a number of calls, because of the short time frame, to try to get as much of the aboriginal leadership as possible up to speed as to the letter I was presenting. In fact, I did speak with the president of the Gwich’in Tribal Council. I have correspondence with the president on, for example, the Mackenzie Valley Highway right up to the coast, so we have had a discussion.

We haven’t had a chance to meet face to face about the meeting with the Prime Minister and where we may be able to go from here. We are starting that process, and our next meeting, I believe, will be late November.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Premier: exactly what is the price tag on this proposal, and what are we are talking about? Are we talking about a billion dollars or more? I think the number for the Mackenzie highway is somewhere in the range of $6 billion. What is the price tag on this proposal?

Mr. Speaker, the Mackenzie Valley Highway is not $6 billion, if I heard the Member correctly. We know there have been groups doing their work. For example, the Department of Transportation used, I believe, $700 million as the target; that is an old number. We know that the Mackenzie Aboriginal Corporation did some work. They talked about $1.7 billion, I believe, in that neighbourhood; that’s their number.

We haven’t progressed to that and looked at those dollar figures. What we’ve been working on is

coming up with a framework that would see a continued partnership between the federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories: taking the revenues they take out of the Territories, and royalties, and putting them back into the Northwest Territories. So it’s a framework right now. We’re going to have more discussions, and we’re going to see if it even goes any further beyond having a commitment for more discussion.

Mr. Speaker, one of the most lucrative resources out there that the federal government owns is the Norman Wells oil field. They own one-third of the field. I would like to ask the Premier: has he discussed the one-third ownership of the Norman Wells oil field and basically used those revenues they receive from the ownership side of the field to put into these types of capital infrastructure funding projects? Has that been part of the discussions with the federal government?

Mr. Speaker, again, we have not had any real discussions with the federal government. I put a proposal on the table for establishing a framework, and that’s the area we’re discussing right now.

Prior to that, probably shortly after we took office and realized that the deal that was on the table was not going to be satisfactory for us here in the Northwest Territories, we started looking at options. We know the federal government has always considered Norman Wells an equity, not a royalty. We started tracking that to see if it, in fact, would be a way of trying to look at how the revenues can be transferred back to the North. It is part of a potential solution, and that has been on the table for quite some time in trying to gauge the federal government in that area.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, in response to an earlier question, the Premier mentioned that he did contact a few aboriginal leaders. I am wondering when he is going to contact all aboriginal leaders and, more importantly, have a briefing with Members on this side of the House so we can get an understanding of what’s in the proposal, what is being stated, so we will get a commitment from the Premier on when this will take place.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that I’ve given correspondence to the Members that gives details of what framework proposal has been put forward to the federal government. I sent that package, as well, to the regional aboriginal leadership. We are going to have our next meeting with the regional aboriginal leadership at the end of November, and we will be able to have a much more in-depth discussion in that area.

I have already committed to Members, and I believe we do have some time still set aside, to go over this item with committee members. Again, we’ll follow through with that commitment.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs.Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs.Groenewegen. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I got my mandate right from Members themselves in this Legislative Assembly when you voted for me as Premier of the Northwest Territories. On top of that, with a number of the issues we’ve put on the table…. We talk about the vision and goals of the Members of this Assembly, taking that and trying to pursue it. That’s where the mandate comes from, and that’s where I carry through with the business at hand.

Now, I know Mrs. Groenewegen herself has quite a number of times stated on record in this Assembly that she’s not been satisfied with the approach we’ve taken. But at the same time Members have heard, when I spoke to the fact of getting this position, that I wasn’t going to be about the status quo and that I wanted to push files forward. I have been trying to do that.

Mr. Speaker, I’m glad the Premier realizes that his mandate comes from the Members of this Legislative Assembly. When he embarks on a conversation with the Prime Minister or anybody else, he is representing us. That’s why it would be really good for us to know what he’s going to say to them before he says it.

Now, we did get a quasi-apology today here in the House as to why the Regular Members were not informed of this fairly significant proposal to the Prime Minister in Inuvik. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen everybody for a long time. Everybody was out at the Gwich’in healing camp. He had just been there with Members; I wasn’t there personally. But there was unbelievably ample opportunity to share with the Members at that retreat — I don’t think there was a whole lot else going on out there — what he intended to go into Inuvik and talk to the Prime Minister about. So I don’t understand why the Premier doesn’t get it.

It’s fine for him to say that I don’t appreciate the approach. I’m not trying to be unnecessarily critical here. I just wish we could get the information before such large issues are broached on our behalf. I’d like to know: does the Premier think, going forward, that we can do better?