Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Under promise, over deliver. No further questions.

Thank you. Are there further questions under the Indigenous intergovernmental affairs. Member for Thebacha.

Madam Chair, I just have one concern, and that's under the implementation. There seems to be a $350,000 drop. So I just want to know how serious the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Premier's office is in making sure that implementation of claims take place? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a decrease of $236,000 in that implementation phase that's a -- funding total were taken out $250,000 for external facilitator services. And also there's a $14,000 increase for compensation and benefits for northern union.

We are very serious. We will still use facilitators as necessary. COVID slowed down some of them. But the facilitators, we have facilitators that are needed, negotiators. There's a couple of groups that we promised that could use facilitators. At this point, the groups are not willing to -- at least one of them, not wanting to use facilitators. So until the groups can say we want those facilitators at the table, both groups, then there's no sense putting it in our budget. So if we need more in the next year, then we'll look at implementing more. But at this point, I don't see that we need them. I think we can do the work without. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just have a concern because I know that there's an anniversary of one of the claims in my area that was signed in 2002, and it is now going to be 2022. It is 20 years, and they still don't have the implementation of the claim, and that's why it's a concern. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, there are concerns with a lot of Indigenous governments. I'm not sure which one you're talking about so I'm not going to guess which one. There are some ones that are moving forward slow. There's some that are moving quicker. And at one moment, you think you're at the ready to sign an agreement with one group, and then it takes a step back. Madam Chair, you can attest to that one. And another time you think that you're at a standstill and then they're ready to get at the table. So it's really a matter of working where the Indigenous governments are. But I am hopeful that as many as possible will get signed within this government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Premier. Member for Thebacha.

No, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there any further questions? Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I fully understand that COVID has delayed some of the negotiations, but I'm very worried that we're going to end up in the same boat that the last Assembly was in where the Premier of the day promised that all the outstanding negotiations would be settled. And at the end, all we got was one agreement-in-principle on self-government in Norman Wells, in four years. And that was from, you know, when we didn't have a pandemic, whatever. I just never understood why -- what was happening. Nothing was happening. And I continue to hear from negotiators that the real problem was no longer the federal government; it was the GNWT that was the problem.

The negotiators didn't have any authority. They didn't have a clear mandate. They have to go back to Cabinet every time they wanted -- had to move outside of anything. It was just not good news, and nothing really got done, quite frankly, in the last Assembly on that file in particular. So I'm really hoping we're going to get a different outcome but everything I've seen so far is that it's not going to be much different.

Can the Premier tell us whether any of the negotiating mandates for any of the tables have been adjusted in any way since the beginning of this Assembly? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, well, I was going to let it good news is always good news. So we were going to release the core principles and objectives. That work was coming out. We're looking at actually moving that forward to -- the federal government does have their negotiating mandates out. We're actually just finished the work with Cabinet, finalizing it, changing it, and Cabinet is of the view that we should also be releasing our core mandates principles -- or mandates out there. So again, that's -- I was hoping to do a bigger announcement but this is the announcement. And you will see that coming out forward.

I do think that once it's on the table, there's nothing -- we talked in Cabinet. There is nothing in those negotiated mandates -- I mean, it's not one mandate. I remember being asked in the House. It's lots on every different area, every different program, every different health, infrastructure, all kinds of things -- well, maybe not infrastructure. So there is nothing in those that is a big top secret that any Cabinet Minister could see. So we've gone through the work as Cabinet. We're finalizing it. And then we will be publicizing it. So yes. And you know, we're close to an agreement-in-principle with the Akaitcho. They have the paperwork in hand; they're just waiting for their membership to get through with it. That might be internal issues with them. We have the southeast corner -- southeast or southwest -- southeast corner that's -- you know, we're hoping that will be done pretty soon. We have the Yukon government one. I can't remember what they're called on that corner there. So there's quite a few actually that are close.

But like I said, Madam Chair, one day you think you're close and the next day there's a change in leadership or something happens at the table and it all falls apart. So I can't commit that every one of them -- and I was not foolish enough to say that every one will be done. But what I can commit to is that we are working diligently, and this Cabinet is engaged and does make it a priority and is doing the work to try to get them settled. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, okay, thanks, I'll take the Premier at her word and I really look forward to seeing this. But, you know, if it requires more money for the negotiations, changing negotiators, giving clearer direction in terms of individual mandates for the tables, whatever it takes, please get it done. That's all I have to say. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Are there further questions from Members under the Indigenous and intergovernmental affairs? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I apologize to the Premier for her letting that slip, because now I have a lot of questions about the potential of mandates being published. I understand core principle and objectives. But can perhaps I get some further information on what -- I get probably we want to publish some of our goals in mandate areas but I assume for an unsettled region, we have a limit of how much cash we would be willing to accept, a limit of how much subsurface mineral rights we would be willing to give away, and how many land quantum we would be willing to give away. And I have never once heard of a government ever telling anyone what those are. Is that information that is now looking to become public? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's a little bit different. That's the later stages of negotiations, after you have an agreement-in-principle, then you start having those negotiations.

The negotiation mandates are what you look at within that agreement principle. There are things like everyone has a right to mobility across the NWT, things like that. And things like, for example, if you're an inclusive government and you take concern of all residents in your land, then what services you will provide to make sure that everyone has a basic standard of -- within the Charter of Rights. People are -- and if you're an exclusive where you only take care of your own members, then what shall people in those communities and those lands, what rights do they have when they're not a membership of you. So those are the negotiating mandates that I talk about. The land quantum, the resource royalties, and the cash are a separate item from that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Premier. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for that clarification. And I guess my other question is I somewhat -- I've reviewed the federal mandates. They're fine; I have no issue with anything that's in them, really. But then my understanding of how tables work, and it's no different for the GNWT, then there's actually a whole suite of chapters of what the negotiating instructors are. You know, if we're going to have a wildlife chapter, it tells us what the parameters of co-management would look like or when we wouldn't accept co-management. Or if there's a chapter on government services, there's very specific direction. And the feds don't publish that to that level of detail. I'll note that we are the leaders on that considering we -- kind of self-government negotiations in our hands.

Can the Premier just speak to how this public facing document will then change the actual instructions and binder that our negotiators have in hand at the table, because I believe that's where the problem is. It's not so much in getting some agreement on what we can say publicly at a high level. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Honourable Premier.