Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although not a constituent, it’s my great pleasure today to recognize an old colleague -- and I don’t mean old in age, but a colleague I worked with quite a long time ago at Sir John Franklin School -- Mr. Ed Jeske. With Ed up there is Vivian Squires, who will soon be the new executive director for the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few people in the gallery today. Ms. Denise Yuhas, a very successful businesswoman and one of the best constituency assistants in the business. Bonnie Lynch, one of our northern trained and very capable nurses; and Ms. Theresa Beaulieu from Fort Smith as well. Welcome to the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my recognition of visitors in the gallery will sound a little bit like déjà vu thanks to Ms. Bisaro. I too would like to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske. He’s a very well-known and wise, respected constituent. Accompanying him, as Ms. Bisaro had mentioned, is the lovely and charming Vivian Squires, who has just returned as the executive director to the YK seniors. Welcome to them both.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few people joining us in the gallery today on behalf of the Mine Training Society: Hilary Jones, the general manager, Rachelle Beaulieu, Marilyn Hardisty, Jessica Enzoe Riddle, and Kelly Arychuk, the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t get to do this very often but today I would like to recognize my granddaughter, Julianne Groenewegen, in the visitor’s gallery. I’d also like to recognize my very long-serving constituency assistant, Wendy Morgan, who is also in the visitor’s gallery today.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome any Weledeh residents and I’d also like to recognize the Mine Training Society folks and Jane Arychuk, head of our Aurora College campus here, and, of course, my long-time and old-time mentor Ed Jeske and his accompanist Vivian Squires.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent of Yellowknife South, Ms. Kelly Arychuk. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t recognize a long-time hockey supporter, minor hockey, senior hockey, old-timer hockey, the only guy I know that has an arena named after him -- I’m sure he would have brought his cow bell in if security would have let him -- Mr. Ed Jeske.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize Marilyn Hardisty in the gallery here today, a former resident of Jean Marie River. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings.

Item 6, acknowledgements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge the recent grand opening of the Chief T’Selehye School in Fort Good Hope. The official celebration began on January 14, 2011.

I’d also like to thank the people who made this happen. My appreciation to Minister Jackson Lafferty and to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Congratulations to the community of Fort Good Hope, especially to the parents, teachers and the community.

Chief T’Selehye was a strong leader, and may the school produce more such leaders in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must take exception to the manner the Member raised in his Member’s statement about how this government has been pathetic in reaching out. The fact is, during the life of this government, the 16th Assembly, we set up the regional leaders approach that had all the regional leaders, presidents, grand chiefs at the table to help set the discussion about what we share and how we do work and things. At the table we also recognize that we’re not always going to agree on subject matters that come forward.

In fact, this agreement-in-principle that the Member is referring to bring people back to the table on, if you look at chapter 4, the general provisions of the devolution agreement, from 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8 all talk about Aboriginal rights and interests and how this government and the federal government and the parties that sign onto this would work in ensuring that those rights are protected throughout the Northwest Territories in this devolution process.

Aside from that on the specific question of support for Aboriginal governments, we have supported Aboriginal governments by providing funding

directly to the regions to take part in devolution discussions.

Further to that, the meetings in the Sahtu, for example, we have supported those meetings with funding, along with attending those meetings and will continue to do that.

As we all know, all groups are not part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum which some groups are not taking part in. Yet the Dene leadership forum includes all the Dene leadership throughout the Northwest Territories, which allows them to have that discussion among themselves for those groups that are not part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum but do take part in those discussions.

I’d just like to ask the Premier, since he made a reference to the wording in the agreement under the land claims agreement, which is protected under the Canadian Constitution, it’s pretty clear that the Government of the Northwest Territories shall involve the Aboriginal governments in developing implementation of a northern accord agreement on oil and gas which is negotiated in accordance with the element of the land claims agreement. I’d just like to know, if you have a constitutional agreement which clearly stipulates that you shall involve them, and then on one hand you’re saying, well, if you’re not at the table, you can’t talk, I’d like to know what we’re going to do to have an inclusive system that includes First Nations leaders to have that discussion either amongst themselves to develop their positions and bring them forward so the Government of the Northwest Territories and the people of the Northwest Territories can see exactly what the First Nations positions are.

The process we have used has been absolutely inclusive. In fact, it’s through the modern treaties, as the Member has referred to them as, the land claims and self-government discussions and the ones that are in negotiations that set up the regional leaders process.

Every one of the regions has been a part of that process. It’s been at those regions, those regional leaders, the grand chiefs and the presidents that have said they’re the decision-makers that affect their claims and the people they represent, not the Dene Nation national chief. So we’ve worked with those regional leaders through this process.

In fact, through the Northern Leaders’ Forum, which is a side to the regional leaders table, Mr. Erasmus asked to be a part of that and I took it to the regional leaders. They accepted that he could be a part of that process as an observer, because, again, they held that right to be the decision-makers. So we’re working with the decision-makers.

This agreement-in-principle, clearly with the involvement of those who wanted to be at the table and chose to be at the table helped with the wording in this around those protections, and about the sharing of authorities, and about the resource revenue sharing piece. These are included in this agreement-in-principle that we’re working on and going forward towards negotiations on, because we had involvement in the early days and we’ve left it open to come to the table and be a part of those decisions, be a part of that discussion and help set the future course of the Northwest Territories.