Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]
Mr. Speaker, I want to ensure the people of Tu Nedhe that the Premier, in signing the devolution agreement-in-principle with the federal government, has thoroughly gone through some very important details. That is what the Dene leadership in Tu Nedhe want to know.
I’m sure that the Premier was being honest earlier in his term when he said that the work on the devolution agreement was on the backburner. Leaders in my constituency believed him and so did I. However, now the Dene leaders feel that the Premier has been working on the devolution agreement all along. My leaders said to me, he’s been working diligently on the agreement-in-principle in the background all this time.
As I said last week, it was wrong to sign the agreement without the Dene governments on side. It was also noted that there were some other major problems with the AIP and I will speak on some of those today.
It is very possible that running a regulatory system will end up costing more than the federal government has agreed to transfer to us. This is made more likely with the fact that the $65 million pledged to manage the land and resources was not indexed to inflation. It will be easily five years before this transfer takes place. We would basically lose a percentage of that money right off the top.
I’m worried about the cleanup of waste sites. There are many abandoned mines and exploration camps
in Tu Nedhe. I know the federal government has agreed to clean the older sites but I don’t see a commitment or time frame to do that.
We would have to make sure that the federal government isn’t making another empty promise. This could be a great opportunity to create jobs and clean up our environment. It would be essential to the Aboriginal government...