Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As we’ve been going through this department we’ve been struggling to try and find some way for our Aboriginal government partners to come to the table. They say they need money. We say they can’t have it until they sign the AIP. Yet I’m looking at $350,000 here which is in the budget for this next fiscal year. I’d like to ask the Minister, can this money going to Aboriginal government organizations not be used to get them to the AIP devolution agreements discussion table?

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The allocation is for the regional government meetings. We identify three meetings per year. We used to identify four but found the preparation between meetings and the scheduling to be difficult. So we cut it back down to three. The contributions here are to take part in those three meetings annually. As much as the agenda is set by all parties, it could clearly be an item that we have ongoing discussions around the devolution AIP issue. That aside, as I said through Executive earlier today, we would have to come back to this House for additional funding to deal with the commitment made on going to regions and communities to go through the AIP in detail.

Thanks to the Minister. I guess I’d like to know, then, what the focus of the regional leaders meetings is intended to be over this next year. If we have kind of gone through the AIP process, so to speak, and we will be moving on devolution elsewhere, what’s going to be the focus of these meetings as we go forward in the next fiscal year?

I think that’s the unique feature of this regional leaders approach. It hasn’t been the Government of the Northwest Territories that sets the agenda; it is a collaborative approach. We ask every region if they have a specific item or issue that they want to have dealt with. In some cases, we’ve dealt with the education piece or the Water Strategy or the Wildlife Act, to a certain degree, about who’s going to be involved and not and can they put the right people to the table. In fact, one of the agenda items we had as a regular update was the agreement-in-principle and at some meetings there was not much of an update because the first couple of years was very quiet. It was at the request of regional leaders to bring that item not just as an update but as a regular agenda item.

Page 4-24, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, grants and contributions, grants, total grants, $350,000.

Page 4-24, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, grants and contributions, total grants and contributions, $350,000.

Page 4-25, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, information item, intergovernmental relations, active positions.

Page 4-26, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, lease commitments – infrastructure.

Page 4-27, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, work performed on behalf of others.

With that, we can turn back to the department summary on page 4-7, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, department summary, operations expenditure summary, $7.619 million.

Does committee agree that we’ve conclude the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations?

With that, I’d like to thank the Premier and his witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, escort the witnesses out.

What is the wish of committee? Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to entertain the Department of Finance’s main estimates.

Does committee agree?

With that I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance if he has any opening comments. Mr. Miltenberger.