At the regional leadership meeting held with aboriginal leaders in Fort Simpson this issue came up. I, at that point, said if they are interested in submitting a proposal we would have a look at that as well.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the $80 million purchase, what is ATCO purchasing? Are they purchasing the assets of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation or are they purchasing the future potential that the power corporation has, some 15,000 megawatts of hydro power, the potential in regard to hydro, or the potential to win the potential for biomass? What are they buying into for $80 million?

Those are good questions and the fact that we’ve provided initial correspondence to committee to sit down and have a discussion about this and questions of that nature are the areas that we are going to do an investigation on. Again, we want to sit down with committee. We want to go through this process and do that due diligence first before we start to deal with it in any further steps.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened to CKLB on the radio the other day when the Premier was meeting with the chiefs and they were talking about a number of issues with the Premier. I got to thinking in terms of his dialogue this afternoon with the Member for Kam Lake about a going forward basis within the life of this Assembly here. I would ask the Premier if there’s enough discussion from the chiefs and other

aboriginal governments to look at the Northwest Territories, as he was saying, in terms of the possibility of having discussions about constitution reforms and how the Northwest Territories can become a real partner in the confederation of Canada. Do we take the next step in terms of having that type of discussion? Or is that too big of a piece to bite on right now with respect to the pressing issues we have to deal with in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m aware that at the Dene leadership meetings the topic of constitutional reform has come up. I’ve had discussions with the Dene National chief on the issue and I asked or he had requested that we look at trying to establish a joint process and that we undertake approaching the federal government to see if they would be party to that. I told him that we should be looking at what opportunities we have available working together in the Northwest Territories and be prepared to bring that to Members to have further discussion on.

In terms of the joint process and how to approach the federal government and the opportunities so all people in the Northwest Territories can have the opportunity to work together, is the Premier and his Cabinet, as well as the Members on this side here, going to see an opportunities paper or discussion paper saying this is over the last several discussions with leaderships right across the North, I think we’re ready to move on with this issue here to approach the federal government. Has the Premier thought about this in terms of a time frame of when this can happen?

There hasn’t been any time lines or discussion papers put in place. It has been a number of discussions at this point. I’d be prepared to get the material and the work that’s been done before and sit down with committee to go through what has been done and should we look at the opportunity. It depends on, for example, I understand the Dene leadership will do a motion on the subject, is my understanding. It depends on the results of that and the wishes of this Assembly as well.

I certainly look forward to when we can have potentially this discussion about the constitutional reform in the Northwest Territories. When the Premier receives a motion from the Dene chiefs will that be enough to push him forward to say I have the chief in the Northwest Territories asking for a constitution reform. Would that be enough to bring some form of discussion on this side to say we need to look at how we’re going to

shape the Northwest Territories and how we want to put it into the confederation rightly in Canada.

As I said, there has been no commitment and times established. This has been a couple of discussions. As I said, I’m prepared to sit down with Members of the Assembly committee to discuss previous work that was done, where that went, and if there’s agreement that we should look at this process and get further involved or should we put it on the agenda of the next government.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Premier’s discussions with the other Premiers has this type of discussion ever come up in terms of having the Northwest Territories play a greater role in the confederation of Canada in terms of asking for what we want rather than being treated like an orphan of the federal government? We are moving out of that or hoping we’re going to move out of that frame of mind with the federal government. Has the Premier had any support in discussions with the other Premiers?

We haven’t had any discussions around constitutional development. The areas we have had discussions on is devolution and resource revenue sharing and getting their support for those initiatives that we’ve put on the table. That work continues, but we’ve not entered into the field of constitution development.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of constitutional development is certainly a huge issue. It has been briefly mentioned in some of the discussions with the results of the fallout from the Board Reform Initiative, but I must say that I’m extremely surprised to hear the Premier’s comments on this today. I’d like to ask the Premier if this is something that’s been discussed around the Cabinet table. Embarking on a full-fledged constitutional reform?

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, it hasn’t.

I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in some of the constitutional forums

of the past, starting with the Western Constitutional Forum way back when chaired by Mr. Robert McQuarrie. These are huge undertakings and I kind of had the impression that we were kind of making it up as we went along here today. I’m a little bit unnerved with that, just given some of the other priorities we need to focus on right now. We’ve got some huge economic issues out there in the Northwest Territories. We’ve got some huge cost of living issues. I guess I just don’t want to give people out there in the Northwest Territories the wrong impression that we’re off to Ottawa right now to embark on a full-fledged constitutional forum. What he says carries weight, I mean, he is the Premier. Could he give me a little bit more idea of what he’s talking about here when he talks about constitutional discussions?

The fact that this issue was raised at the Dene leadership meeting, so in responding to the aboriginal leaders across the North about this issue we haven’t had a discussion. There is no position right now. There is some discussion about trying to get into a process and we’ll need to come and sit down with Members to discuss if there’s such a process we would engage in, to what level we would engage in, and how we would try to find partners; for example, the federal government would be key to this and what the First Nations would bring to the table as well. There is no paper in place. This is not a march to Ottawa at this stage. This is an issue that has been raised by the Dene leadership. We’re responding in a sense to some of their concerns and reactions, as well as some of the Members, about consensus government in the North. Just put it out there for discussion.

We all know that too many priorities is no priority. Certainly there will be a time when constitutional development will be timely and it will be appropriate to discuss that. Was there a motion or any resolution passed at the Dene Nation this week with regard to constitutional development?

I know it was under discussion at the table. My understanding is they were going to prepare it as one of the motions that had to be discussed and voted on. I’m not sure the outcome of that.