When it comes to the federal government and the work they do on behalf of Northerners, whether it’s Nunavut, Northwest Territories or Yukon, that is something that we have pursued quite a number of times and that is, again, one of those areas that falls within devolution. We went through an exercise, or the Government of the Northwest Territories went through an exercise in previous governments to identify all the positions that are in Ottawa or Gatineau to look at their involvement and the decision-making they had within the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut. We identified quite a number of positions and made the pitch to have those positions moved north. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of those that moved north. In fact, we’ve only seen minor incremental increases within the DIAND headquarters or office set up in the Territories. It’s stuff like that that keeps us making the pitch to build our business case and further involve our partners in the North, aboriginal governments to come up with a united front when it comes to the approach of the federal government. I would say in fact that recent calls I’ve had with people like Charlie Furlong, who has talked about the need to work together and come up with a common approach when it comes to engagement with the federal government, and I couldn’t agree more.
Floyd Roland on Question 263-16(3): Location Of Federal Government’s Northern Development Agency Office
In the Legislative Assembly on March 5th, 2009. See this statement in context.
Question 263-16(3): Location Of Federal Government’s Northern Development Agency Office
Oral Questions
March 4th, 2009
See context to find out what was said next.