Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to speak a little bit about some of the frustrations from the Dehcho First Nations in the Deh Cho. I guess one of the biggest frustrating things, well, actually, one of the other frustrating things that keep happening, like, devolution was something that they did not need at this time because they just have to dedicate extra resources to find their way around that. But I think the biggest thing and the barrier of the Dehcho First Nations moving forward right now is the subsurface rights that was released by the federal government on the Edehzhie. I think that anything that our government or this department can do in urging Indian Affairs to reconsider this would go a long way in goodwill towards the Dehcho First Nations. Perhaps I can get the Premier to explain a little bit about how he heard of it as well, because I think a general feeling is that they would have advised us first before they advised the Dehcho. Maybe I can get the Minister to explain that a bit in his reply.

As well, recently the Dehcho First Nation has asked about having a role in the new chief federal negotiator. I don’t know if they’ve got applications yet, but who that new person would be they would certainly like to have a role and if there’s any way this Minister can also influence the federal government in trying to address this concern.

Also, I’m very pleased that my riding of Nahendeh will have a role in the Western Premiers’ Meeting that’s going to happen this June. I’ll be pleased to help work on that and I think also I have spoken with the chief and he’s very excited. He sees his role as a host and as soon as we involve the LKFN in the planning and assisting in the planning, I think, the better. It’s quite exciting to have our western leaders and a huge opportunity as well to utilize it to the best of our ability.

Just quickly some quick opening comments there for the Minister, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Comments. Is committee agreed that we have concluded general comments?

Okay, I will now go to Premier Roland for a response to the general comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The role of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations is one where we’re, in a sense, and I think the Member may have touched on this, but in a roundabout way we’re the face of our role when it comes to working with both Aboriginal governments and organizations, and with the federal government and with our provincial colleagues, with our communities, quite a gamut of things. In fact, we’ve now stretched ourselves to also deal with the federal government, Foreign Affairs, for example, on intergovernmental issues when it comes to Arctic Council and those areas.

The work that we have done, for example, some of the frustration that’s shared by some of the Members in the files we’ve worked on, it is not Aboriginal Affairs in a sense dictating to departments what has to be done, but through our mandates where we’ve gone through this in the time of this government and are coming forward with those mandates, renewed mandates, that sets the degree of negotiation that can happen, and I must say that we’ve been operating on some very old mandates. I’m glad to see we’re starting to bring those forward for renewal and I believe some of our Aboriginal partners will in fact like the results coming forward on that.

On the consultation piece, I must say that that is one where the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations became directly involved because of the many concerns we’ve heard about consultation and the different levels between departments. So we’ve got that work done and, in fact, working with the Department of Justice we have implemented the training modules. As I pointed out in my comments, we have identified or we have worked with 70 individuals all across the North in that package. The Department of Justice will be taking on the training modules and that part

of it as of April 1

st

on that side now that it’s been

identified and we have used court cases, we have used the land claims documents, we have used many resources that talk about Aboriginal rights and how they get defined, whether that is an agreement signed by governments or how the courts have added further clarification on that. So we have used that and that is what we continue to use. In fact, that applies to even the AIP process that we’ve undergone.

In fact, on the other side of it, implementation, we can show with records and minutes of meetings through implementation that from a GNWT side we’ve been honouring the intent of those discussions as well.

Within some of the frustrations I guess shared by Mr. Menicoche, we share very similar frustrations at times. The Edehzhie process was one of those where in fact the parties were informed the GNWT was supportive of the decision made by the federal government and we quickly reacted to that and in fact had their key staff person go back to the Dehcho and tell them that in fact that was not the case. In fact, we directed the Minister responsible to write a letter to the federal government and the Minister responsible to tell him that in fact we are absolutely not supportive. What we are supportive of was the existing process being extended until the final work that was done, because we felt that we were close to a decision point on Edehzhie and on that process felt that it should have been extended like many of the other agreements were. That’s what we continue to hold and support. In fact, I contacted the Dehcho grand chief, Mr. Gargan, on that.

On the chief negotiator process, we’re not involved in that. The federal government is key to that and we have no influence on that process of their selecting a chief negotiator.

On the western Premiers, I hope to, as I was saying in my opening comments, be able to showcase the North from around the North and our cultural events and try to get as much of our vast Territory in and highlight that to the western Premiers. I think probably even more importantly is the fact that we have the pen on the agenda to help get our subject matters on the table, a little more prominence of doing that. In fact, we’ll have a delegation team from there going in to Fort Simpson to meet with the chief and the mayor to go over some of the initial work that’s been happening on this.

I know there’s been many frustrations over the years on Aboriginal Affairs. For example, on our representation it’s highlighted, I guess I would put it this way, we’ve both been blessed and cursed. The fact that we’ve initiated some of the work that’s ongoing overall in the Government of the Northwest Territories, it was Aboriginal Affairs that first put in place setting up associate directors where we

would bring key P1 employees to the table to begin direct training in a number of areas so they could look at advancement. In fact, by doing that we’ve had some key individuals now move on and take roles, for example, we’ve had one of our key representatives go to Education, Culture and Employment. Our most recent person that we’ve brought on has now been scooped up by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and these were key positions in moving forward. We were hoping that we’d be able to, I think we’ve set the example, in fact Human Resources adopted that associate director role and are now using that more government-wide. So in one hand we’ve done a good job, but on the fact of it when you look at it, it’s hard to show that advancement without going into the people who have come into our system who have stepped up and gone on to move to higher places in the government overall.Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Committee, are we agreed to proceed with detail on Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations?

Consideration of detail begins on page 4-7, but it’s a summary page. So we’ll defer this until we’ve actually considered detail. So let’s turn to page 4-8. Committee agreed?

Okay, 4-8, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, infrastructure investment summary.

Moving along to 4-9, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can we get a breakdown on all those positions based on P1s, P2s, senior management levels in regard to disabled and women in this department? So can I get a breakdown by affirmative action?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Premier Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Out of total employees of 40, we have 13 that are P1, 14 that are P2 and the remainder are P3. The combined that would fit into our Affirmative Action Policy is 67 percent. We have no one self-identified as disabled.

Could you give us what levels they’re at regarding entry positions or middle management or senior management?

In directorate, for example, we have one at P2, one at P1, and both

are female. In policy and planning we have a number of P2s and a P1 in our system. Negotiations is where I think we’ve done a fair bit of work that we’ve stepped up at negotiator and chief negotiator positions where we have in negotiations one chief negotiator P1, we have a senior negotiator P1, another senior negotiator and four assistant negotiators P1s that we’re hoping to be able to move up as we’ve put this program in place. Implementation, same thing. We have three in P1 category and three in the P2 category. Intergovernmental relations we have one P1 and three P2 positions.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Krutko? Alright. We’re on page 4-9, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, department summary, information item, active position summary.

Pages 4-10 and 4-11, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to understand this department’s role in negotiations on devolution, such as the AIP. It was covered in the general remarks of the Premier under Executive. I’m assuming this department plays a big part in these negotiations. At least the information states they play a major role in all lands and resources negotiations. Could I just get that confirmed?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Earlier in Executive there is a devolution file that holds the resources. For example, hiring chief negotiators and assistant negotiators as well as supplementing some of our legal issues. Our role as Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations in the work, as the Member has highlighted, with our key role in many of the negotiations around the Northwest Territories is a key one. We have a committee of deputies that are involved in the devolution discussions and Ms. Sparling sits as part of that group and ensures that as we go through that work that, for example, the consultation framework that we have in place and our obligations under the land claims and the Constitution work are all followed and made sure that everybody is aware of the positions.