I certainly look forward to that business planning session and to see if indeed this government will provide resources for Highway No. 7. My point is that this government hasn’t identified it as a priority in the government and it is in none of their documentations. The Ministers just got a mandate letter from the Premier and Highway No. 7 doesn’t even appear in there. I’d like to ask the Minister how and when Highway No. 7 will become a priority for him and our government.

Without the capital dollars to attach to it today, it’s hard for us to put it in a speech like we heard earlier today. Going forward, this government is going to try to identify capital dollars for Highway No. 7 and we can look forward to getting there through the business planning process that will take place later this coming year.

I believe it’s easier to put them in the speeches. It’s just two little words that I’ve been asking for for nine years. If it’s not a priority of this government, then those words do not end up in any of our documentation. I’d like to ask the Minister to fight for my people, my constituency and

the highways that I represent. There has got to be some government documentation to make it a priority and to recognize to my people that it is a priority to have a safe transportation infrastructure.

Certainly going forward, Highway No. 7 is a red flag project. It is going to be a priority of this government to try to identify capital dollars to keep that highway maintained at a safe, safe clip.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. How is this Minister keeping Highway No. 7 a priority with his deliberations with his Cabinet colleagues and the federal Ministers?

My Cabinet colleagues are well aware of Highway No. 7. It’s a discussion that comes up time and time again. I have committed to the Member some time during this session that the Member and I will drive Highway No. 7. I want to get a look at it firsthand. I know it’s experienced a great deal of precipitation in the past week and I look forward to going with the Member to take a look at the highway. Certainly it will be a priority as we go forward.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask several questions to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. As you all know, the GNWT and the Sahtu have signed on to the Devolution Agreement. I understand that three out of at least seven or eight groups have come on board. I just wanted to ask the Minister if he can provide us, this House, an update as to the progress or the next steps of the devolution negotiations. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now we are negotiating a final agreement with the Government of Canada and the participating Aboriginal governments. We are keeping the other Aboriginal governments that have not signed on the AIP, we are keeping them informed by regular detailed updates on the negotiations, and we are also in discussions with four Aboriginal governments to see if we can find common ground with regard to devolution and other Aboriginal issues. Thank you.

As negotiations unfold and as the public kind of observes this process, at some point it is inevitable that conflict will arise. I want to ask

the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs if there are mechanisms in terms of arbitration or mediation that perhaps this government will consider as this progress towards a final agreement progresses. At some point perhaps there could be an anticipated juncture where conflicts will arise.

Is the Minister and the negotiations team aware or even considered, perhaps, where there could be mediated measures or arbitrated measures to ensure that the progress is made but at the same time the common interests of all groups are maintained? Thank you.

As the Member is aware, the framework agreement that was signed by all three parties, which guides the Dehcho negotiating process, points out that both the federal government and the Dehcho have different understandings on the interpretations of treaties 8 and 11, and our preference is that the Aboriginal and treaty rights for the Dehcho be negotiated through the land and resources agreement.

As I talked about before, the Dehcho understand that devolution is based on a modern land claim treaty and they don’t agree with the written version of the treaties. Their view is their oral version where they had not given up any Aboriginal rights or land under their treaties. Right now the Dehcho are negotiating a final agreement which will take precedence on anything that’s negotiated, so we are using the negotiations as the process. We did get correspondence from the Dehcho in 2006, where they concluded that devolution would not affect their lands and that they wished us every success in our devolution negotiations.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I like the term “common interest.” At some point, I know there’s progress, and negotiation is an agreement-in-principle and it’s non-binding on the parties. I wanted to ask the Minister if at some point, with the two parties at the table – and of course, with the interests of the GNWT to treat the whole Northwest Territories as one main body – has there been discussions with the groups in terms, perhaps, principle agreement to the concept of a central government working with the regional government and how those governments will be sustained through resource revenue sharing.

We are trying to do that through bilateral discussions with the Aboriginal governments. We have been meeting with the Tlicho. We have been meeting with the Dehcho and, unfortunately, we were weathered out on a meeting this Thursday. It’s our intention to meet with them to see if we can find a way forward, and we are planning to have some high level discussions.

Similarly, with the Akaitcho we had a meeting planned for this past Tuesday but one of the elders from the Akaitcho passed away, so those meetings were deferred. It’s our expectation that we will continue to have discussions to try to find some common ground.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you may all know, Aklavik is an isolated community. Last year the only road to safety up to the foothills was washed out and the community was left to use their capital funding to pay for those costs. My question to the Minister of MACA is: What emergency assistance does MACA have available for communities that face flooding, such as Aklavik? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We look at it on an individual basis and see where the money would be best put. In Aklavik’s case, I know a couple of years ago they had used some money to fix up a lot of their roads in town. One of the things that we’ve just recently done during our meetings with other Ministers of emergency measures from across the country is Canada’s rolling out a Disaster Mitigation Program which would go towards mitigating situations such as the ones that we’re facing in Aklavik. If there’s an opportunity there to access some of the money – they’re still working out the details right now – this would be one of those projects that would be ideal for this type of program once the details are ironed out. Thank you.

Will the Minister have emergency funding set aside for the community of Aklavik in case the community faces a flood this year?

Again, Mr. Speaker, I say we will look at it on an individual basis and if there is a lot of flooding in some of the communities, we have to look at it on an individual basis and see where we can best assist the communities.

The communities themselves are well prepared to deal with a lot of emergencies that come their way. I think 29 of the communities have emergency plans put in place, so as far as the financial part of it, again, we’ll have to look at it on a case-by-case basis and see – going back to the Disaster Mitigation Program – how that rolls out as there may be opportunity for some funding there.

At this time I have no further questions.

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