Thank you, Mr. Krutko. I didn’t hear a question, more of a comment. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You can only consider this any type of speedy process if you accept the fact that it’s okay to wait 45 years, from 1967 until today, for the basic rights that other Canadians enjoy. If the Member is

suggesting that we should be prepared to wait another 45 years, to still in that time period, we stay here as second-class Canadians because we don’t have those rights, I would highly disagree and say it’s high time that we move on this.

The federal government is currently taking in the royalties. The federal government is currently taking all those royalties. We do not get what is in this agreement. We are leaving...on this table we have left over $200 million. There’s going to be another $60 million this year. I’m not sure how the Member can sit here and say it’s not fair that we should just... We might as well have a big bonfire and burn all the money that we could have had, and for the Member to say we still need money for houses, we still need money, I want roads, I want this, I want that, yet we’ll turn our back on the opportunity to have those resources, to have the ability to generate more resources, and to be saying that we’re going to turn our back on that. We are not taking anything, we are not diminishing or derogating from any Aboriginal right, treaty settlement or land claim. Thank you.

Well, again, I have to totally disagree with that from somebody who was at the negotiating table when the Northern Accord was being negotiated, in which the Dene-Metis were guaranteed that they will be able to negotiate a Northern Accord agreement throughout the Mackenzie Valley and they would take ownership of the royalties and resources throughout the Mackenzie Valley under the Dene-Metis claim. That is what was agreed to. That is what was committed to the Dene-Metis people during those negotiations. Nowhere was the GNWT going to be there to pillage the Dene-Metis lands at the 11th hour with a

group that doesn’t have an interest in the Mackenzie Valley and move forward. For me, that is exactly what is happening here, and to say that the Dene-Metis people down the valley are losing out, they’ve been losing out since the Government of the Northwest Territories moved here. They’re still losing out, because they’ve got a better working relationship with the federal government than they do with their own government.

This is the worst government relationship with Aboriginal people we’ve had in the Legislative Assembly since it’s been established, sad to say, and it’s because of the attitude of the Premier and the Deputy Premier towards Aboriginal people, especially Dene people. I think it’s important that this government, making those type of comments, saying that oh, the Dene-Metis people have been waiting this long, well excuse me, they’ve been waiting this long to settle the Dene-Metis claim throughout the Mackenzie Valley and they were committed to a land and resource arrangement where they were full participants, not sitting on the sidelines because they weren’t invited to the table or basically rejected from the table because the

people that were around the table didn’t like the idea.

So, again, I think it’s pretty clear that this government is wanting to go full speed ahead and leave the Aboriginal people in the dust again.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. I didn’t hear a question, more of a comment. Minister Miltenberger, would you like to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member has made some very harsh, inflammatory comments, highly critical of the Premier and myself, and highly critical of the institution that he has served in for the last 16 years. He’s made some inaccurate depictions of what is on the table. Land claims have been settled and have been honoured, maybe not as well as could be, but we are talking about public lands, we are talking about resources that we’re currently not getting at a time, as I just demonstrated when I did the fiscal update, that we are under some significant fiscal constraints and we do not have the authority to control our own destiny and our own ability to generate the revenues and wealth that we’re going to need as a territory and to avoid the type of situations that we just talked about in this House today, once again, with things like regulatory reform.

So what we need is measured debate. What we need is to have the discussion with the recognition that we are moving forward to take our place as full Canadians at the table of Confederation. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. We’re on page 4, Executive, operations expenditures, executive operations, not previously authorized, $2.831 million.

Agreed. Total department, not previously authorized, $2.831 million.

Agreed. We’ll move along to page 5, Human Resources, operations expenditures, management and recruitment services, not previously authorized, $8,000.

Agreed. Corporate human resources, not previously authorized, $1,000.

Agreed. Employee services, not previously authorized, $1,000.

Total department, not previously authorized, $10,000.

Agreed. We’ll move along to page 6, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, intergovernmental relations, not previously authorized, $269,000.

Agreed. Total department, not previously authorized, $269,000.

Agreed. Moving along to page 7, Finance, operations expenditures, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, negative $6,000.

Budget, treasury and debt management, not previously authorized, $4.2 million.