Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions here. Mr. Moses has already referenced the increase to the Native Women’s Association and to the Status of Women Council of the NWT. I’m glad to see that a couple of organizations which do work outside of government have been given an increase. I gather that it’s up to each organization within each department to kind of scream and holler for money, and that’s unfortunate. I would urge the Minister, as Premier, to look across government and maybe set something in place so that organizations are evaluated more often than every five years and that increases for all NGOs or all non-profit groups are looked at every two years, say, and increases granted if they are justified.

I wanted to just ask in regards to the women’s advisory unit hard on the heels of the very successful Women’s Campaign School this past weekend. I suspect it’s not in this budget, but I wonder if there’s any inclination on the part of government to fund, whether it is Status of Women Council or another organization, specifically a campaign school on an annual basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Premier McLeod.

Thank you. When I floated the idea over the past couple of months, there was very little support for it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I guess I’d like to know from the Minister who the idea was floated with and how far and wide did he ask. Thank you.

It was floated by all of the MLAs, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I guess I missed that conversation. I don’t remember being asked what I thought. I guess I would suggest to the Minister that we need to go a little further afield than just MLAs when we’re getting input on whether or not a campaign school should be held more often.

My second question has to do with page 34 where it references a review of negotiating mandates. One of the things that have concerned me for a while is the position of the federal government with regard to funding of not negotiations, but funding of the agreements. They have a policy called Fiscal Harmonization Initiative. I would like to know from the Premier whether there has been any determination by the federal government. Is this something that is in place now or is the federal government still sitting and waiting? If this is in

place, how is it impacting us and how do we fund agreements once they’re reached? Thank you.

This is a concern to us. We have been modelling the self-government agreements. Potentially if all of the seven self-government agreements were in place, we anticipate there would be a very severe shortfall to pay for self-government. Obviously, the Government of Canada has a different point of view. They see self-government as reducing their costs and we have pointed out to them where we expect there is a significant shortfall. They have indicated they are reviewing it and they’ve been reviewing it for some time now without any substantial change in their policies. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I’m glad the government is continuing to fight against the federal government on this particular situation. It is going to have a very large impact on our finances if we don’t get some solution to where the federal government wants to go and where we feel we need to go. Just a comment. I urge the Minister and his department to keep fighting the federal government on this Fiscal Harmonization Initiative. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Premier McLeod, any comment?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are going to continue to push on this one. We are also making sure the Aboriginal governments are aware of it, to see if we can, together, push on this very important matter. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. No further comments, Ms. Bisaro?

No.

Thank you. We are on page 35, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, $4.018 million.

Page 36, corporate management, grants, contributions and transfers, total grants and contributions, $1.205 million.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Agreed.

Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to get a breakdown just to confirm the core funding to the Metis locals. Can I get a breakdown on what exactly the Metis councils are getting?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. They get $13,000 a year in core funding, Mr. Chair. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Since then, we’ve done a review

and increased it to $20,000 in core funding for Metis locals.

That’s really good news, $20,000. This is our own funding from the territorial government, no flow-through from the feds? This is out of the goodness of our hearts to fund the local Metis $20,000 to have them operate their office like the Status of Women or the Native Women’s Association? Is that the type of funding we’re looking at? Thank you.

That’s correct. That’s funding from the GNWT. We review it on a periodic basis. Thank you.

I hope the periodic basis is at last once a year. We appreciate it. I don’t even think the federal government is funding it and we’re doing it. That’s the unique challenge in the communities. Some of them do not yet have a land claim organization to fall back on, especially for the Metis people and the locals to come up to the same par as the Dene organizations, band councils. This is peanuts compared to their organizations. There is still an inequity and injustice from one Aboriginal group to another Aboriginal group. It’s clear. We see it in this government and the federal government. I’ve always stated that this is where the Metis and the Inuvialuit need a lot of help in our smaller communities. Certainly, there’s a long way to go.

I do appreciate the increase the government has given. Is this increase for this year? Over the 11 years I have been here, we’ve always had $13,000 for the Metis councils in each community. This is the first time I’m hearing $20,000. We should have had a letter written, a big celebration. Thank you.

The increase happened two years ago. Thank you.

The Minister talked about the funding being checked periodically. If this funding happened two years ago, we know that forced growth has happened. We deal with it in our budgets and the Premier talked in his opening about the Native Women’s Council and the Status of Women getting an increase. So, this was two years ago and we’re still at $20,000. As much as the Metis councils appreciate the funding, if you do the breakdown on core funding that we give to the Metis locals, maybe I could do an exercise as to what it really costs and what $20,000 a year for a native political organization that is recognized and entrenched in the Constitution, Section 35, to implement or have their Aboriginal rights recognized and affirmed. I hope the Minister goes to the federal government and says this is what we’re doing in the territorial government. We’re a small government. What gives here? What gives? This type of funding shouldn’t be allowed in this day and age for an Aboriginal group of this stature that is in the Constitution.

I’m just saying what’s on my mind and my frustration. I know the funding for other Aboriginal groups, they wouldn’t take this. This is to an organization that certainly could use more help in this area. I’m just rambling, so I’ll let it go.