Welcome to everyone in the gallery today. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills.

Before we go to the next item on the orders of the day I’d like to just take a moment to recognize and thank the Pages that have been working for us in the Assembly this week. We have two Pages from Hay River North, two Pages from Sachs Harbour and four Pages from two of the schools in Yellowknife that alternate days. Thank you very much for the work you do for us, Pages.

Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 7-16(3), Ministerial Benefits Policy; Committee Report 2-16(3), Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Matters Referred to the Committee; Tabled Document 11-16(3), NWT Main Estimates 2009-2010; Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Historical Resources Act; Bill 3, International

Interest in Mobile Aircraft Equipment Act; Bill 4, Public Library Act; Bill 5, Professional Corporations Act; and Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. By the authority given me...

---Interjection

...with Mr. Bromley in the chair.

Greetings, colleagues. I’d like to call the Committee of the Whole to order. We have before us consideration of Tabled Document 7-16(3), Committee Report 2-16(3), Tabled Document 11-16(3), and Bills 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

The wish of the committee is to proceed with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations department budget today.

---Interjection

Oh, and time permitting, moving on to Public Works and Services.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We’ll get on to that, but first we’ll start with lunch.

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Thank you. I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. We have agreed to review Tabled Document 11-16(3) with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. I will go to the Minister responsible, Premier Roland, for some opening comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to present the 2009-2010 main estimates for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, DAAIR. The resources provided through this budget will enable the department to meet its core responsibilities. These are to represent the interests of all NWT residents at aboriginal rights tables and through our intergovernmental relations with aboriginal, provincial, federal and territorial governments.

The department is requesting $6.807 million in operating expenses for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. This represents an increase of 4.7 percent or $307,000 from 2008-2009, needed primarily because of a substantive increase in the number of negotiating tables.

In the coming months, an additional four tables are expected to be created by the federal government, bringing the total number of tables in the NWT to 15. This represents an increase of 50 percent from a year ago. Mr. Chairman, while I recognize the challenges associated with community as opposed to regionally based negotiations, Canada and the GNWT are obligated to enter into community-based self-government negotiations with both the Sahtu and the Gwich’in through provisions contained in their respective land claim agreements. Furthermore, First Nations in the NWT retain the right to trigger community-based land claim negotiations. Once Canada agrees to enter into these negotiations, the GNWT is compelled to participate in these new negotiating tables.

With this reality in mind, the GNWT needs to focus its efforts on shaping the negotiations to work towards an outcome that supports sustainable, workable and affordable systems of governance. We simply cannot and should not rely on Canada to represent our interests at negotiations. And just showing up at negotiations won’t be enough. We also need to be sure that our negotiators have mandates that are current. As I indicated previously, we will need to conduct a comprehensive mandate review which is grounded in a discussion about a vision for the NWT and the role of the GNWT.

Such a discussion will need to involve all Members of this Legislative Assembly and I look forward to initiating a series of briefings and discussions with you in the near future.

To ensure that DAAIR, on behalf of the GNWT, is well positioned to represent and promote the interests of all NWT residents at each aboriginal rights table, the department’s 2009-2010 main estimates include:

•

forced growth increases in the amount of

$146,000 to support the incremental costs of negotiating a community-based land, resources and self-government agreement with the Acho Dene Koe First Nation; and

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strategic investments from the Managing This Land Initiative in the amount of $926,000 to continue work to finalize and implement land, resources and self-government agreements.

Mr. Chairman, as you know, the GNWT has a legal duty to consult with aboriginal governments and

organizations where a government action may infringe upon an affirmed or asserted aboriginal or treaty right. In its recent budget, I was pleased to hear the federal government commit to working closely with provinces and territories to ensure that our collective consultation obligations with aboriginal people are addressed as efficiently as possible.

Commencing in 2009-2010, DAAIR will assume the responsibility for implementing the GNWT consultation framework. As consultation is ultimately about building mutually respectful relationships between the GNWT and aboriginal governments and organizations, this responsibility fits well within the department’s mandate. DAAIR’s primary role will be to assist GNWT departments in developing appropriate consultation plans and conducting proper consultation. The department will also focus its efforts on developing and delivering consultation training modules for GNWT staff in all regions. To assist in meeting these objectives, the 2009-2010 main estimates include strategic investments from the Managing This Land Initiative in the amount of $64,000.

Mr. Chairman, I acknowledge the concerns expressed by Members on the number of aboriginal managers and employees in the department. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations along with all other departments are facing challenges in achieving workforce diversity representative of the population. Because the situation is complex and not well understood, we need to resist the temptation to resort to quick fixes, which may not have the desired results.

To better understand why the GNWT has had difficulty in increasing the representation of aboriginal people at all levels of our organization, the Department of Human Resources was commissioned to develop a Corporate Human Resource Strategy that will include a comprehensive affirmative action strategy. The completion of this overall strategy will provide a framework for the development of departmental human resource plans and initiatives, including the development of departmental succession and affirmative action plans. This work will be undertaken during the 2009-2010 fiscal year and will ensure a consistent and coordinated approach across government, providing equitable opportunities for all staff.

In the meantime, DAAIR has utilized innovative approaches in its recruitment efforts that have proven to be successful. In the past two years, five assistant negotiator positions have been staffed through a trainee program. This program provides one-year developmental opportunities to candidates

who do not possess the level of experience required to compete for these jobs and I am pleased to report that the program has been successful. Each individual who has gone through this program has successfully secured indeterminate employment within the department. Three of these employees are indigenous aboriginal persons and I am pleased to report that one has been promoted to a chief negotiator position. To build on our success, we are currently working on further refining this program and allowing more flexibility respecting entry requirements.

To assist employees in meeting their career development goals, DAAIR has supported four employees with education leave over the past two years, three of whom are indigenous aboriginal persons and one indigenous non-aboriginal person. I am pleased to advise that two of these employees have secured more senior level positions within the GNWT.

In the immediate short term, I can assure you the department will make every effort to hire aboriginal summer students and interns this year and continue to work closely with the Department of Human Resources on the development of the overall Corporate Human Resource Strategy.

That concludes my opening remarks. I am prepared to answer any questions committee members may have.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Would you like to bring witnesses into the House?

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Thank you, Premier Roland. Can I please get you to introduce your witnesses.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. To my left is the deputy minister, Ms. Gabriela Sparling, of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. To my right is Mr. Richard Robertson, director of policy, legislation and communications.

Thank you, Premier Roland. I’ll now open the floor up to general comments on the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Before I do, does

committee agree that we’ll go through general comments of all Members before going to the Premier for his responses?

Thank you. First on my list is Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Our Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, I just want to maybe address aboriginal affairs. I know that they continue to be involved in a lot of the negotiations and main-table discussions. I had a curious discussion...I know that the Minister and his staff came to Fort Simpson. I think it was in early January. I had a curious discussion with the leadership and they actually didn’t know the staff that was travelling with the Minister. It got me thinking that even though we’re at the main tables, the people that are involved there are familiar with the people involved in the negotiations. But my thoughts are about, well, just how much does our staff travel to the communities and engage the different chief and bands. I don’t know if it’s part of a strategy to go out and meet the leadership and be exposed at the different leadership meetings, and I don’t know if staff turnover has a role to play here, but I think what I’d like to see, Mr. Chair, is that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs is present, that they develop a repertoire, a working relationship with the different communities in different regions and different leadership so that they know who is travelling with the Premier if he travels again in his purview as the Minister of DAAIR.

I think that’s key because communications are always important in developing any working relationship and developing trust. I would urge the ministry to look at this area and develop a strategy about travelling around. Maybe they’re already doing that, I’m not quite sure, but just with those few comments that I did receive, it kind of indicates to me that people weren’t aware of the staff at DAAIR or their specific duties. I know that some other, maybe federally or...I know that in the past that some people do go to the communities and travel around and develop this working relationship. It doesn’t have to be a specific visit; sometimes it’s just a knock at the band offices or the Dehcho First Nations office or the regional offices just to say hi and we’re in the neighbourhood kind of thing. The key thing is to develop that working relationship to develop consistency, to develop knowledge of who’s in DAAIR and what are they doing. I just wanted to bring that forward.

As well, of course, the second thing is I know that the Minister has indicated about the difficulty in being a representative department as well of our great northern Territory. I would urge him to

continue to work on their strategy to develop a more aboriginal representative in DAAIR. We’ll do whatever we can to support their initiative with recruitment and/or training and/or even transfer assignments from other departments; there are people that may express interest. I look forward to whatever strategy they develop to present to committee and maybe we can have some thoughts about their model because there are many, many, many different models out there about increasing interest from outside government and within government as well. I think that will really, really help the department and it will create further exposure too that they’re actually out there being proactive with the communities and saying, you know, is anybody interested in working with us, here’s what’s needed and if those levels aren’t there we’d be prepared to in-house train or whatever it takes there, Mr. Chair. Those are my thoughts on the opening remarks. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. General comments. I have nobody else on my list. Does committee agree that there are no further general comments?

I will allow the Premier an opportunity to respond to the general comments. Premier Roland.