Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Masi for your question. As I said, just prior to the federal election there was a court of appeal process happening where the federal government had appealed the injunction. After the election, we lobbied and worked to try to get the injunction stayed until we dealt with amendments.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. With regard to the trust question, we were involved in the regulatory amendment discussions from the get-go: me plus my other legal colleagues, and one who isn't here with us today, Arthur Pape. He was very instrumental in the negotiations of the section in the land claims agreement that deals with the regulatory systems.

Government Operations committee  In the Northwest Territories, we have the oil and gas activities in the north, and we have the mining activities, the diamond mines, in the south. For us, using ASETS, the mining companies, Aurora College, and the Mine Training Society have been doing a lot of training programs for underground miners, and training for working at the mines.

Government Operations committee  Good afternoon. Colin gave a good outline of the Tlicho. The Tlicho are located north of Great Slave Lake just 100 kilometres north of Yellowknife. We have a huge track of land. We own 39,000 square kilometres, which is about half the size of Nova Scotia. Our traditional territory is called Mowhi Gogha De Niitlee—and I was hoping to circulate a map for the committee members.

Government Operations committee  He is first.

Government Operations committee  Twelve.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Tlicho did an impact study of the Tlicho agreement on the northern economy. It showed that we contributed about half a million dollars to the northern economy because of the Tlicho agreement, through our businesses and all of that. Could we give it to the committee?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Currently we're working with Canada regarding some discrepancies within our boundaries. So we're trying to work those out before we finalize anything. There's no huge thing, but we're working with NRCan on finalizing the boundary. It is finalized, but there are just a few discrepancies we need to work on.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Tlicho have a different position, that through the intergovernmental services agency that the Tlicho are actively involved in, that it's all driven by the Tlicho. In the school system, their principle is “strong like two people”. So we haven't exercised that jurisdiction, but because the ISA agreement that we have is a 10-year agreement, we're negotiating a renewal of that agreement and we're contemplating the possibility of exercising that jurisdiction.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are no renegotiations of the agreement. There are amendment provisions, but the implementation plan that accompanies those agreements is for 10 years, and there are options to renew or renegotiate.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Again, as Ethel mentioned, with regard to the procurement issues and the economic chapters in the agreement, the implementation of those needs to happen seriously. We all have similar economic measures chapters that deal with procurement in our region and that deal with a lot of remediation site work that is crucial to the economy and to the environment, and also the work that the coalition has been doing in trying to advance an implementation policy.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Tlicho have a full box of governance. There are other agreements, negotiated rights, that we don't have and we can negotiate that into our agreement. We do have, as Grand Chief said, 39,000 square kilometres of land, which is huge. One of the first things the government did was put the lands into moratorium until we develop a land use plan.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mahsi. As you know, the Tlicho are self-governing, and with governments you have jurisdictions. When it comes to the issues of health, education, and housing—the question you're asking—a lot of that is within self-government agreements and the shared jurisdiction. The Tlicho have an intergovernmental services agreement with GNWT.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Mahsi. Implementation is crucial to the parties in meeting their obligations under land claim agreements. There has been ample work done on it, and studies and reports through parliamentary committees and the Auditor General over the years, since land claims have been in existence.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I think we need to also understand a bit of the background on the MVRMA and the changes. There are two types of changes that were contemplated in the MVRMA. One type is what we call the operational changes, and one is the structural change. It's the structural change that we oppose.