Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, because we are both from the fishing community of Hay River, how important to get this file moving is. The department is working closely with Freshwater on trying to move this file along. As of the latest briefing that I've got, they were still in discussions with Freshwater Marketing Corporation on getting an MOU and business plan together, and like I say, on my latest briefing, I believe they're going to try to bring something forward here within the next week or so for us to consider. So that's where that's at.

It's good to hear that we're moving and it should be in within a week. If a deal can't be struck with Freshwater -- given their track record, I'm not sure one can be, but I'm still hopeful -- will the GNWT take the initiative and dip into that $1.4 million they've had set aside and build a fish processing plant in Hay River?

The important thing about the $1.4 million that's been carried over from last fiscal year to this fiscal year is for the Department of ITI to use that as leverage for the funding that we are putting forward to CanNor to give us the best potential to help build the plant in Hay River. That being said, the Member actually had two questions there, if we weren't able to make a deal with Freshwater on that moving forward, what could we potentially do with that money. Well, that would have to be a discussion along with myself and our colleagues in this House if we want to wish shift the priorities of the use of that money. Right now it's designated to use to leverage CanNor towards a position of potential completion of a fishing plant in Hay River.

I also mentioned that the Great Slave Lake has been neglected by DFO when it comes to the investment in harbors. You look at any lake in the south that's utilized by the commercial fishing industry, especially one of comparable size, you'll see just how bad our deficit is. This lack of access points combined with the outdated quota zones means that fish around the Great Slave Lake have to travel much farther than competitors in the south, it means their wages and the cost for equipment is much higher. It puts them at an immediate disadvantage. Because of the low-level engagement to address these issues, as in the Fishermen's Federation talking to bureaucrats at DFO hasn't been working, I'd like to know how the Minister is engaging the Department of Fisheries and Oceans so that we can move forward with this revitalization strategy in terms of harbor investment and rezoning?

I guess previously when I was on the Metis Government Council we have a seat at the board of GSLAC, and GSLAC is a governing board that puts advisory suggestions along with DFO on how we're going to use the lake, and this is one of the areas of discussions how we can re-divide up the lake and make better access points to be considered for the fisherman to access and make a little better living and be able to raise their quota on the lake. These discussions are ongoing. They recently had a meeting as early as last month, and there's discussions still going on. I can state in this House when we were in Ottawa and I met with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans that this was a point that was brought up at a political level when we were there and we will continue to try to move this forward.

As MLA for Hay River North, I regularly attend GSLAC meetings, I meet privately with the NWT Fishermen's Federation president, I attend the NWT Fishermen's Federation meetings, I talk to fishermen in Hay River, and I know that these issues they brought to GSLAC. The issues with zoning aren't being addressed. When I went to my first GSLAC meeting, they brought up issues. We went to the second one, there were the same issues with absolutely no movement. If anything, there was a denial of doing anything. I've also hear, from the federation that when they talk to the bureaucrats they tell them, we need word coming down from the top to make these changes. We have a little bit of a constituency budget here, not much; it mostly goes to salary and running an office, but I would like to use that constituency budget if the Minister would help me set up a meeting with the Minister of DFO, I'll take him, I'll take the NWT Fisheries Federation president and myself and we'll go down there and we will meet with the Minister so we can start making progress on this.

If the Minister insists on flying business class, maybe I can just send him and the president. How does the Minister respond to that?

---Laughter

I thank the Member for his eagerness, but there is a process that we have in place here, and we're engaging Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp., we're engaged with the federal government at our level, we have our colleagues on the other side of the House through committee. There's a number of things that we need to do, and I think if time permitting let this process work its way through the system here for the next little bit. As I said, we're getting very close to coming to an agreement with Freshwater, with an MOU and a business plan that we start moving on. As he stated, we are both from Hay River and this is an important file to us and we need to keep it moving. I ask the Member for a little more patience and we will consider what we're doing moving forward.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Masi. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to report that negotiations at all three tables with the Dehcho, Akaitcho and NWT Metis Nation are ongoing and by all accounts the negotiations are proceeding and we're making progress. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Earlier in the year we are aware that the federal government had some federal appointees, ministerial special representations that came to the territory to do some assessment on behalf of the federal government. Can the Premier provide us a little update on what the status of those assessments are and can we expect those reports to be coming soon?

The ministerial special representatives that were appointed by myself and the Minister of Indigenous Affairs for Canada have been working very hard in both the Deh Cho, MSR had met with all of the leadership and has gone to every community and I think has also had a final round of meetings. Similarly with the MSR for the South Slave has undertaken all of those discussions, and I fully expect that final reports will be brought forward within the next couple of weeks, certainly before the end of February and also I understand some initial drafts have been shared with some technical experts for some input as well. So I'm looking forward to receiving the reports of the ministerial special representatives.

I thank the Premier for his response and certainly looking forward to those reports in the next couple weeks. Mr. Speaker, what then on a path going forward would be the next steps after we receive the reports? How will the Premier be informing this government and Aboriginal leaders going forward after receiving the reports?

The way we see it working out is that federal Minister Bennett and myself will accept the reports and we'll meet and determine a path forward. On our part, I certainly expect that we will work with the Joint Cabinet and Standing Committee on Aboriginal Relations and that we would, at the appropriate time, share that document and discuss it and, certainly, on a similar basis with the Aboriginal governments. They've all written and asked for copies of the report, so we'll determine a path forward with the federal Minister and we'll discuss it, and, at the appropriate time, we'll share it with all of the Aboriginal governments.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Premier for his reply. My final question is:

does the Premier believe that, of course in collaboration with First Nations, that within the life of the 18th Assembly we still have the opportunity to finalize these agreements and bring them to implementation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At some point early on in the life of this government I made the point that we were hoping to settle all the land claims in the life of the 18th Assembly, and, certainly, my expectation is that we will make very good progress.

I strongly believe that the report of the ministerial special representatives will advance progress significantly. We had very good meetings with the grand chief of the Dehcho First Nation at Roundup in Vancouver. We are both very optimistic, and we're all prepared to work very hard to move this file forward significantly. We've had discussions with the Akaitcho, and we think there are opportunities to move forward and, certainly, the head of the Metis Nation, there has been very strong movement, so I expect these reports will advance the files significantly, to the extent that we will be fairly certain of an outcome. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. The time for oral questions has expired. Item 9, written questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Masi, Mr. Speaker. I have two written questions.

The first one: GNWT participation in the Association for Mineral Exploration BC Roundup, January 2017. My questions are for the Premier. The full Cabinet and a contingent of support staff travelled to Vancouver during the week of January 23, 2017 to attend to Association for Mineral Exploration BC Roundup.

Can the Premier provide a list of all NWT Ministers and staff who travelled to Vancouver for the meetings and,

1. total cost of travel including transportation, showing air travel by executive versus economy class; accommodations; expenses; and associated allowances;

2. any related contract costs for the trip, particularly costs of conference registration, exhibitor staffing, any fees for consulting services outside of those provided by public servants, any funding by the GNWT Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment of the costs of other NWT representatives attending;

3. a description of hospitality events, including costs and numbers and names of persons attending; and,

4. procedures in place to track and report on accomplishments resulting from trip activities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My second written question is Cabinet's November trip to Ottawa. My questions are for the Premier. Members of Cabinet and their support staff travelled to Ottawa during the week of November 21, 2017 for intergovernmental meetings and parliamentary presentations.

Can the Premier provide a list of all GNWT Ministers and staff who travelled to Ottawa for the meetings and,

1. total costs of travel, including transportation showing air travel by executive versus economy class, accommodation expense and associated allowances;

2. any related contract costs for the trip, particularly costs of lobbyist support, including contracted services, organizational research, presentation preparation and writing services;

3. a description of hospitality events, including the costs and numbers and names of persons attending; and,

4. procedures in place to track and report on accomplishments resulting from trip activities.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Mr. Clerk.