Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of brief comments as well. I think one of the biggest factors in this department is devolution. I think it’s one of the keys to the future of the Territories and one of the progressive things that we’re looking at doing. Along with this devolution are also the concerns of what that brings for the future, what existing things that we’re signing right now with the federal government, what will we be able to change, what will we not be able to change.

The other thing that one of my colleagues mentioned was decentralization and the potential of jobs for devolution. I’m a strong supporter of that concept of getting those jobs out to the regions, into groups where the communities can take on these jobs and be ready for them.

I think one of the tools that are available to us right now is the program review office. They have done some reviews of the government. It may be something that we want to extend out of that office, is to look at the viability and the operations that are currently happening in the federal government and what devolution can bring to the Territories. My feelings towards the program review office are kind of mixed. I think they do have some good ideas on some of the reviews. One of the reviews I don’t, that they just implemented, was this new office building in Yellowknife, which I strongly don’t support for several reasons and one of those reasons is decentralization where we’re going to build a bigger office in Yellowknife again, giving us more reason to have more offices and jobs in Yellowknife. I think it’s anti-productive to what I’d like to see the government doing as far as decentralization and moving the devolution jobs out to the regions.

Along with another colleague that talked about the NGO stabilization, I know there’s a pot of money there, but it seems like it’s not quite enough. It seems like – and I may be corrected here – they’re going to some of the larger organizations that are territorial organizations that are centralized in the capital. It would be nice to have some additional funding for out in the regions and the communities.

That is some of the concerns that I have in the current budget for this department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to make the point that I think, as we move with the negotiations of the devolution AIP, I know in the end I think the goal is to make sure that the government has an inclusive process, so that there is at least a successful understanding in terms of how things are going to work. My interest is to ensure that, as the former NDP leader said, we don’t leave anybody behind. For those purposes, my intention is to ensure that this leadership at least gives it a good try to address some of the fundamental differences and the challenges. If we are very skillful negotiators, then I think perhaps there could be some points of compromises from all sides.

That being said, I just wanted to point out that I think Detah was a beginning of a great process and resulting from that, we have the current Aboriginal Engagement Strategy. I’d like to see it continue. It’s a positive step and we need to build upon, at least, the milestones that have been achieved to date. I’d like to at least see maybe a progression of building upon that gathering that happened in October, and suggest and recommend to the Executive and the negotiators that are dealing with this file, to at least attempt to have a forum of some kind before the conclusion of an agreement-in-principle. That’s my only point I wanted to make.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. General comments. Seeing that we’re finished, we’re going to give the opportunity for Premier McLeod to respond to general comments. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Members, for your comments. Perhaps the best approach is to address each of the comments raised by the individual MLAs.

With regard to relationship with Aboriginal governments and our employees, this is something that we’ve taken as a very important priority. We will be releasing our Aboriginal Engagement Strategy, I think maybe tomorrow. The reason we haven’t released it yet is we were translating into all of the Aboriginal languages. We’ve managed to get that done now. Our whole Aboriginal Engagement Strategy is based on respect, recognition and responsibility. We’re going to follow that; not only our government, we are also going to have our employees follow that approach. We’ve developed a handbook that we’re hoping to get some feedback from and that we can release. As well, we will be providing public information and providing awareness and public education on Aboriginal rights and treaties so people can understand all of those issues.

With regard to Ottawa, everywhere I go, everybody I talk to, I say wouldn’t it be nice if we could to together in Ottawa to pursue our objectives, and we can accomplish a lot more by doing so. In dealing with Ottawa, I think we have a good relationship with Ottawa. Right now, we are finalizing a Federal Engagement Strategy. We have some very big priorities that we need to work with the Government of Canada to make happen, the issues that you raised.

The Sahtu and how we govern ourselves, the land use framework, this is something that we’re working very hard. We’re working on the Land Use Sustainability Framework. Through Section 6 of the agreement-in-principle we are going to be working with all Aboriginal governments to see how we’re going to work together. I think we are looking at everybody being responsible for their own areas of responsibility but we work together. In our experience, we want to work with all of the MLAs, because we find we have a lot more chances for success if we work with the MLAs and their regions and their constituency and their Aboriginal governments.

Self-government negotiations, I think we’re getting back on track. There were some issues, governance issues, but I think that we’re getting back on track. It is my expectation that in the 17

th Assembly we’ll be signing off on a number of agreements.

Duty to consult, we’re covering that in the Federal Engagement Strategy, so you’ll be able to see what we’re doing there.

Decentralization, I think this is a very sensitive area, because we can’t just go out and start moving positions. We have to have a process. We have to take into account that there are sensitivities with our employees, so we have to have a process where for priorities, for those that don’t move with decentralization. We are working with all the deputy ministers right now to identify potential areas for devolution. The numbers that you quoted, I think if you read the whole report you’ll see it’s not 62 positions. It’s 31 positions, which is still a lot. It gives us a greater chance for success with decentralization because there are more positions. I think that is only a 0.6 percent increase. It’s our expectation that we can work on the plan. We’re going to work with committee and I think that we will work on it over the summer, and I think that we’ll have some idea where we’re going to go in the fall.

With regard to some of the other comments, the program review office, as I said, we’re giving them direction, and with the direction that we give them, if they make recommendations, then we have to deal with the recommendations if it’s going to be useful.

The NGO Stabilization Fund, I think we’ve tightened up the criteria. We put out the requests earlier. We’re hoping to get the money out earlier. It’s a

tough one because the demand is always a lot more than the money we have.

Similarly, with the general services officers, I think we’d like to see more and we’ll continue to try to find this. It’s certainly a good way to get people into the smaller communities.

Devolution implementation, we’ll be working on that and we’re prepared to present at every opportunity to committees.

Forging the Future, I talked about that in the past. We want to continue but we want to put our own brand, the 17

th Assembly brand on it.

Decentralization, as a government, we’re not here to make excuses. We’re here to get things done, so we’re going to be working on that.

With regard to being inclusive, don’t leave anybody behind. We’re reaching out to everybody to find common ground. As I said, in the seven months or eight months that we’ve been here, I’ve met with 21 Aboriginal governments. I’ve had 21 meetings with Aboriginal governments, so we’re reaching out and we’re certainly prepared to build on milestones, and we are going to be responding to your request for an October forum very shortly. Thank you.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. General comments are concluded. Does committee wish to proceed to detail?

Thank you, committee. I’ll turn over to page 2-7. We’ll be deferring that until consideration of detail. If I can get you to turn to page 2-8, Executive, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?

Page 2-9, Executive, information item, revenue summary. Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, just on the federal government’s contribution to support activities between Devolution Agreement-in-Principle, the Minister has indicated $2 million. So this number here, is this number still… When you divided up to the Inuvialuit, the Metis Nation and Sahtu and ourselves, just part of some of the Aboriginal governments have not yet to date decided to sign on. Is this for all of us that who are signing on to the negotiations? I’m just trying to figure out where this money is, how much is left of it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chair, later on in one of the pages is where the money is for the Aboriginal governments. This is the contribution from the federal government to our government for implementation planning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chair, would the implementation planning involve the Aboriginal governments that signed on with the GNWT to do the planning post-devolution, et cetera, on this planning?

Mr. Chair, that is correct.

Page 2-9, Executive, information item, revenue summary.

Thank you. Page 2-10, Executive, information item, active position summary. Are there any questions?

Thank you. Page 2-11, Executive, action item, directorate, operations expenditures. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions here. I want to revisit the issue of decentralization. I thank the Premier for his remarks and his comments. I understand that the government is looking at how the project, for lack of a better word, will be rolled out, how various departments are going to try and analyze who can be moved, what can be moved and when. There is some indication, I guess, that there might be something this fall that maybe committee will be able to have a look at.

My concern at this point is committees have no opportunity to consider what criteria the government is using to determine whether or not a particular position could or should be moved. We have discussed decentralization a lot. There is an awful lot of interest on this side of the House that jobs be moved into the communities, kind of an economic stimulus. I don’t disagree with that, but I do have some concerns about how the decisions are being made about which positions would be moved and where they might go. Each position has relatively specific needs attached to it. Could I ask the Minister to kind of give me some idea as to what critera are we… Or are there criteria that are being used as you deliberate this issue? If so, what are they? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister McLeod.

Mr. Chair, we have no criteria right now. What we have done is we have requested deputies to identify potential areas that perhaps could be eligible for decentralization at some point. We are doing some work, identifying inventories of office space and housing that is available throughout the Territories. We are getting requests from MLAs that we should decentralize immediately.

I have indicated that we are going to work with committee. Certainly, for those centres that have office space and houses, the likelihood is that we

probably could move fairly quickly, but we are going to work with committee to establish criteria and to agree upon a process going forward.

There are a number of things that we have to take into consideration. First and foremost are our employees. People are already asking questions about where their jobs are going to be moved. We have to be very careful. We have to have a plan. We have to be strategic. We have to make sure that there is agreement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chair, thanks to the Minister for the information. I appreciate that there are many factors that have to be considered. I’m not one that feels that we should rush into this. That’s why I asked whether or not there are criteria. I’m pleased that criteria will be developed. In my mind, office space and housing are absolutely two of the most major things in terms of moving positions outside of Yellowknife. To the opportunity for committee to provide some input into the criteria that will determine how and when positions would be moved, is there going to be that opportunity and when? Thank you.