In terms of the aboriginal self-government, when the report was done it was not asked to look at political issues or new political structures such as those that might be contemplated in division or aboriginal self-government. The report was simply asked to look at how great a responsibility for government programs might be placed in the hands of people at the community level, and the community transfer is a means of achieving that.

Now if people do not wish to move ahead, if your group does not wish to move ahead, that is a decision of your communities. We are not here to place before you or shove some responsibilities at a community level if you do not wish to take it. If the communities are offered and they wish not to take part, that is entirely up to them. They may be exploring other things that are far more important or far-reaching and do not wish to participate at this time; that is up to the communities that you represent. I want to make that very clear, that every region may not be the same or that every community may not be the same. We are trying to address the simple issue of the complaints and the concerns that we get from community people in terms of their desires to run their own lives at the community level.

I just want to make sure that you know, if you are placed in the position here before the Legislative Assembly of taking the stand that the people you represent do not wish to take part in this community transfer and wish to wait until some other negotiations go on at a higher level or with the federal government, that is entirely up to the communities you represent. We do not wish to impose upon communities or groups who want to take a political stand in terms of determining a longer-term objective that they do have; however, in many communities, people are saying that they want to take as much of a responsibility as possible. We realize as a government that not everybody, not every community or area, is ready to proceed, and we are willing and quite open to accommodate whether people wish to move faster or slower or not at all.