Thank you, Mr. Chair. Six months and I am finally using the acronyms. This is a very good program, these government service offices. I have heard great things about them. My CA just took some training provided by the Executive. There was a bit of a government service, some GSO components to that. I was wondering, are there plans to roll these out in some of the larger communities? Because I know in Hay River, I do a lot of the work that the GSOs do. I know they do some stuff for Service Canada as well. I am also picking up that kind of slack. I like helping people, but I don't know if that is necessarily the best use of my time. I was wondering if there is a plan to expand this program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a bit of a plan, but not to larger centres. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Any further questions, Mr. Simpson?

No. That is something I will have to pursue over the life of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Committee, any further questions?

Thank you, Committee. Please return to department total on page 117. Thank you, committee. On page 117, Executive, department total, $11,986,000. Agreed? Thank you, committee. Does the committee agree that consideration of Department of Executive is completed?

Thank you. Thank you, Minister. Thanks to your witnesses for appearing before us. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Sorry, Mr. McLeod. You have closing comments?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank Committee for their review of the main estimates. If I may, Mr. Chair, I wanted to point out that this will be the last time Penny Ballantyne will appear to defend the main estimates for the Executive. So I wanted to thank her for all her support over the years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod and thank you, Ms. Ballantyne, for all your hard work. If committee agrees, we will now move on to department of DAAIR. Committee, we have also agreed to begin consideration of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations.

I will turn to the Minister responsible for the department for opening comments. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2016-17 main estimates for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. Overall, the department's estimates propose a decrease of $586,000 or 6.3 per cent from the 2015-16 main estimates. These estimates continue to support the objects of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed estimates include:

● $200,000 in initiatives funding to increase the capacity to support the Government of the Northwest Territories new approach to negotiations and $786,000 in expenditure reductions.

The proposed Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations estimates continue to support the priorities of the 18thLegislative Assembly. Specific activities in support of these priorities include:

● implementing a more flexible and adaptive approach to negotiating land claim and self-government agreements, one that incorporates collaboration and consensus building with all partners and negotiations;

● refining the Government of Northwest Territories' land and negotiating mandates with the view of tabling new land quantum offers as soon as possible;

● consistent with respect, recognition, and responsibility continuing to invite any regional or community Aboriginal governments that are not yet party to one to strengthen their intergovernmental relations with the GNWT through the negotiation of an intergovernmental agreement.

That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Thank you, Minister. Would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.

Thank you. Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left, Martin Goldney, deputy minster of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations. To my right, I have Richard Robertson, director of corporate policy and fiscal arrangements. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. If everybody has agreed, we will go into detail. We will defer page 27 until after consideration of the department detail. Okay, that brings us to page 28. Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, active position summary information item. Any questions? Mr. Nadli?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am aware that our Minister had been chair at the national level of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group. That chairmanship ends this summer, so I just wanted to maybe ask whether the Minister could maybe highlight for us in terms of the GNWT’s involvement at the national level and how perhaps we have influenced the national agenda in terms of addressing the Aboriginal issues across Canada, and more so for the NWT. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that having myself or having the Government of the Northwest Territories chair the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group was quite a recognition of the important work that we do here in the Northwest Territories, and also how far ahead the Northwest Territories is in regards to a lot of Aboriginal issues including Aboriginal rights, land claims, and so on.

As the chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, which involves the aboriginal affairs Ministers of all the provinces and territories, of which at least eight of them are Premiers, and the leaders of the five national Aboriginal organizations, we deal with very difficult issues. Initially, we have dealt with missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. Also, we have had a review of best practices of Aboriginal children and care. These are issues that are assigned by the Premiers of Canada to the different working groups.

I held the chair. This will be my second year. We accomplished a lot the first year. I chaired the First Round Table of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women and Girls, and we completed a very major review of Aboriginal children and care. We also worked on a number of other initiatives such as disaster mitigation and so on for a very small jurisdiction. It was quite a test for us to be able to accomplish what we did because it required a lot of resources.

More recently with the new Government of Canada, Minister Bennett came to the Northwest Territories very early on into the new government's mandate. She came in January 8thand one of her primary reasons was to meet with regards to the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group. She is seeking support for a national inquiry. We are prepared to do that. As the chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group, I was given the task by Canada's premiers to develop new terms of reference to set up a new body to replace the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group involving the Government of Canada and the federal Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada to service the co-chair, along with myself. We'll be meeting next week to hopefully improve the terms of reference. It will have a new name. It will be our national Federal-Provincial-Territorial National Indigenous Forum. Once that's established, there will be a new rotation and Ontario will take over the chair, much to the relief of all the hard working staff that have worked so hard in order so that we could serve as a chair for two years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.