Page 4-25, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, operations expenditure summary, $1.525 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two questions to the Premier regarding the intergovernmental affairs relationships engaging with the Metis groups in the North. My first question is: What is the GNWT’s policy or position when it comes to engaging with Metis groups and how long ago was that established?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess we came up with this policy when the Metis Nation no longer existed. At that time we tried to find a consistent approach, and the government of the day decided that they would take the money that was available for funding the Metis Nation and divide it up amongst the 17 Metis locals that were in existence at the time. The money stayed the same for all these years and the last few years we took an approach whereby if some of the money was not disbursed, we would disburse it before the end of the fiscal year to those Metis locals that were in good standing because, of the 17 Metis locals, there was only 10 or 11 that were in good standing. We would go through an exercise where we would give them their allocation and then towards the end

of the year, if there was a surplus we would disburse it.

More recently we’ve made the conscious decision that we would only fund the 11 Metis locals that are in good standing and we took the $250,000 that was there and we split it 11 ways. It works out to somewhere in the neighbourhood of between $13,000 to $20,000 per year to each local.

I appreciate the information the Premier has given me. I have to save some of this stuff for Member’s statements.

One more question. There have been some movements on the Metis rights with recent court case law. What is the government doing to analyze the impacts of that case law and how it might affect the way we work with Metis groups in the future?

As we predicted, the Government of Canada has appealed the decision. Our preliminary analysis is that it would have minimal or no impact in the Northwest Territories because of the fact that we’ve been treating Metis differently. We’re the only jurisdiction in Canada that has Metis health benefits. We’ve been accorded hunting rights. If anything, if the decision stands up we may have been able to recover some of the money that we spent on behalf of Metis, but that remains to be seen because it’s before the courts.

We’ll just have to wait for that appeal decision to go through the process and see what comes out of it. I will leave it up to the good judges to decide on that on there. I’m not going to get too far on that one here. Certainly I know that we’ve been very fortunate with the Metis health benefits. I know when my mother was alive she was certainly happy to have these health benefits because it really helped her out a lot there. Of course, with the Sahtu Dene and Metis land claims we have hunting rights. I come from the same people. My grandfather was a true-blooded Dene and those are the rights that he gave to me through my bloodline. I want to say that I’m still using them to the fullest and I thank my grandparents for that. Also, the Sahtu Dene and Metis is the first comprehensive land claim in Canada that gives rights to a Metis Nation. No other has been given that type of rights. They are a nation of people and, certainly, I continue to advocate for them. If there’s a story to be told, maybe one day we’ll sit down and listen to how Metis people grew up in the North and how we were looked upon by this very federal government of the day. Things are changing so I did want to say that we’ve come a long way and we’ll continue moving. Those are comments. The Premier really doesn’t have to make any comments. I just wanted to make known a little bit of what I want to really express. I’ll need a day and a half to do that. This time I just don’t have that time.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Again, committee, we’re on 4-25. I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on the Intergovernmental Council that the Premier mentioned earlier. I assume this division would be the one working with this. I believe it’s a construct that would happen after devolution. If I could just get an idea of what the membership would be and the role would be of the Intergovernmental Council, and maybe what GNWT’s position or relevance with respect to the council would be.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That responsibility lies with the Department of Executive but I’ll answer it anyway. Under the AIP on devolution, Section 6 provides for an Intergovernmental Council essentially so that all of the different governments can work together to manage the jurisdictions together but each being responsible for their own jurisdiction. We would have this council so that we would all work together to deal with land issues and resource issues and so on. That was the idea behind the Intergovernmental Council.

That gets me in the ballpark and I think I’ll leave it at that. I’m sure we’ll be having lots more discussions on that.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Page 4-25, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, operations expenditure summary, $1.525 million.

Page 4-26, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, activity summary, intergovernmental relations, grants and contributions, grants, $350,000.

Page 4-27, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, intergovernmental relations, active positions.

Page 4-28, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, lease commitments - infrastructure.

Page 4-29 and 4-30, Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, information item, work performed on behalf of others, $547,000. Mr. Yakeleya.

I just have a quick question here on the work on behalf of others. We have some very bright students who are going to post-secondary education. Recently I heard in the news that Human Rights was going to hear that the federal government – I’m not too sure what you call it, underfunded or undermined – did not live up to the obligations of the Aboriginal children for education. I’m not too sure exactly on the hearing but it seems that it could be a possibility. I’m not too sure. I want to know if the Minister, within this department, has some interning students who have done some work on post-secondary that could look at some studies on Aboriginal health or education or things like that that will help us with our land claim operations and self-government agreements. Do we have that type of arrangement with other universities or any type of things that would give some research to our communities as we start negotiating and taking over some of the responsibilities of the programs and services?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.