Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up a bit on sort of the same vein as some of the questions that Mr. Bromley was asking. I heard the Minister say that there will be consultation and public engagement. I’d like to just ask the Minister what the difference is between those two terms. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Engagement is where we will be going to the communities, and describing and advising the public about the Devolution Agreement. Consultation is the legal requirement that is associated with Aboriginal governments that have land claims and treaty rights. Thank you.

Thanks to the Premier for that. So if the consultation is only being done because of a legal requirement for Aboriginal governments, am I right in assuming, then, that non-Aboriginal peoples will not be consulted? They will simply be provided with information. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you. I think we’re getting hung up on semantics, but the results will be the same. Thank you.

I don’t understand the answer. Perhaps the Minister can explain.

We will be presenting with the same information, except with the Aboriginal governments we’ll have the Aboriginal governments participating as well. Thank you.

As I already indicated to MLA Bromley, I don’t agree that’s an accurate assessment. Thank you.

Thanks, at least that’s clear. I want to also talk a bit about devolution, and I think the Minister referenced figures in here, or else I saw it in the budget somewhere, but the money for negotiations will be reduced, but we’re also working on implementation for once this agreement has been reached and things are signed off. So it’s a

general question in terms of implementation. I know it’s been worked on within this current budget year. So how are things going? Basically, are we going to get everything done? I think the target date is April 1st of 2014. Is everything going to be done by then?

Thank you.

Thank you. There’s going to be a substantial amount of work that will have to be done. We’ve already been at implementation for over a year and also what we do will have to dovetail with the federal government, and the Government of Canada has assured us on several occasions that a transfer date of April 1, 2014, will be achieved once we get a deal. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that. So one of the things that I think has been mentioned already is the legislation that is required. We have to mirror the federal legislation and take it on ourselves. So I know that preparation of legislation takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of work. Will we need to be hiring legislative drafters in order to get all the legislation ready for April 1st ? I know that our

Justice department is pretty backed up right now with regular legislation, so to speak. So this added burden, in my mind, requires more bodies. So is that the case? Thank you.

Thank you. We have already hired legislative drafters specifically to provide for the 24 statutes and acts that we have to deal with to make devolution happen. Thank you.

Thanks to the Premier for that. So, good to hear.

I wanted to just ask a question about the numbers that are on this page. Compensation and benefits are reduced from the current budget year to ‘13-14 and I note at the bottom of the page devolution implementation, I guess it’s about the same basically, but if you look at numbers of staff a couple of pages in, the staff members don’t change. So why have compensation and benefits gone down so much if our staff complement is the same? Thank you.

Thank you. It’s because of the fact that we’re sunsetting negotiations and we’re moving some people around. We’re sunsetting an executive director of devolution, we’re sunsetting an expert policy advisor and we’re hiring two policy advisors on implementation. So that’s the reason for the changes.

Thanks. I just want to confirm. So we are sunsetting some expensive staff and hiring less expensive staff. Is that kind of the way it goes?

That’s correct.

Thanks for the clarification. I have two last questions here. The first one has to do with the Auditor General’s report, which came out I think almost two years ago now, and it was sort of a

status report of a number of reports that they had already done. Within that report at the end of the report the Auditor General identified three barriers, which they saw as barriers to effective and efficient government within the GNWT. They were inadequate information to manage programs and make decisions, insufficient monitoring of third-party program delivery, and an absence of detailed action plans on how and when recommendations and audit reports will be implemented. My understanding is that the Department of Executive took the responsibility on to work with those three barriers and to do something about them. I think there was also a review and I think a report was being prepared. Am I right in my recollection and if the report is done, or is the report done if there was a report being done? Thank you.

Thank you. We followed up with the Auditor General of Canada so that we were very clear on the barriers that he was identifying and that we understood where he was coming from. We have a clear idea of why he was making those recommendations and we are doing a risk management framework that will allow us to address all three of those barriers and Executive will take on the task as recommended.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I gather there was no report that was done that perhaps could be shared with committee. If there is, I would appreciate clarification of that.

My last question has to do with whether or not the Department of Executive has a human resource plan. I understand that each department has been tasked with developing a human resource plan. I can’t remember whether the Executive has one or not.

We’ve been preoccupied with devolution and some other priorities, but we will develop a human resource plan. With regard to whether there was a report developed in response to the Auditor General, through you I will ask Mrs. Ballantyne to respond.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mrs. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Mrs. Ballantyne. Ms. Bisaro, your time has expired. Moving on I have Mr. Yakeleya.