Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. I think I neglected to welcome the witnesses to the Chamber, and especially Mr. Courtoreille. I know this is his first appearance in front of the committee, so I would like to welcome him. Mr. Premier, you have 10 minutes to respond if you wish.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, and I do not think I will use the whole 10 minutes, but I can respond by saying that I am very pleased with the progress that we are making with regard to negotiation of land claims and self-government agreements. In almost every instance we are making significant progress, and I expect that, by that end of the 18th Legislative Assembly, we will have significantly advanced every land claim and every self-government to the point where they are almost all concluded, and I look forward to that.

With regard to self-government, the second self-government agreement and the first self-government community, we are working very well with Deline. We have an implementation committee that is advancing very smoothly and implementing their self-government land claim. As part of the resolving and making progress on land claims, we have two MSR reports that we expect will be submitted within the next week or so, and the Government of Canada and ourselves will sit down and work on a path forward and we will engage with the Aboriginal governments. I think we have had very good discussions with both the Akaitcho, the NWT Metis Nation, and the Deh Cho First Nations. So we have changed our new approach and I think that with that with the MSR reports that will allow us to move forward.

On the GSOs, we are very pleased with the GSOs. I think that we are continuously making progress. We have pilot projects with the Government of Canada in three communities where they are funding the costs and in three communities where we provide services on behalf of the federal government. So we expect, once the pilot project is done, we will be able to assess it and I expect that we will be able to use that approach in other communities. Certainly, we want to look at whether more of these positions can be full-time. The larger centres, I think we need to review that, you know, whether we go to a federal model or the service centres approach.

On Federal Engagement Strategy, we have been following exactly pretty closely what the Member has been saying, where the three territories are going to work together. Then we are going to meet with the Prime Minister as well, and the Prime Minister has reassured us that what the three territories develop will be the foundation for the Arctic Framework. We express our concerns that, to us, the Arctic is the three northern territories. The federal government is also involving Quebec, Newfoundland, Ontario, Manitoba, so they see them as having northern areas as well.

We just have to make sure we do not get lost in that process as well, but the federal government has given us some very good signals that the three territorial governments represent the Arctic in the three territories, so we are pleased with that and we are looking forward to coming up with pan-territorial sustainability and economic strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Committee, we will begin consideration of the document. The department starts at page 93, but as always we will defer consideration of the departmental total until we consider each activity individually. The first of six activities is on pages 99 to 101, Cabinet support. So $1.6 million activity found on pages 99 to 101, Cabinet support. Comments of questions? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What is the operational relationship between the Public Utilities Board and the department? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This department just provides administrative services for the Public Utilities Board. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Mr. Testart.

Although we are not directly referring to the section, the Public Utilities Board on the org chart is under the Minister responsible, who in turn is under the Premier. Does that have any kind of structural implications? The independence of the office is obviously established by legislation, but does the Premier have direction over the Minister responsible when issuing policy direction to the Public Utilities Board or does policy direction come from the Minister responsible? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister provides policy direction to the Public Utilities Board. We provide administrative services, so we handle the contracts and whatever pay that the board and board members are entitled to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. Is this where the Office of Priorities and Planning is located as well? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Premier.

There is a separate division, called priorities and planning, which is later on in the document, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, premier. Priorities and planning is activity six of six in this document. Anything further? Mr. Testart.

No, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. While we are on the subject of the Public Utilities Board, what is the long-term plan for this board? I know that fairly significant and prescriptive policy direction was just issued by Cabinet to the Public Utilities Board. Is it the plan of Cabinet to get rid of this board? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is no plan to change the Public Utilities Board. What the Member is referring to is what the Public Utilities Board is doing its job. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that answer, but it was fairly prescriptive policy direction in terms of items that are going to come before it. Why bother having a Public Utilities Board if we are going to issue that sort of direction? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Premier.

We are just following the procedures as laid out in the mandate of the Public Utilities Board, Mr. Chair.