Thank you. I am pleased to announce to the House that the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut and the federal government have concluded successfully land claim negotiations in Ottawa over the weekend. The Hon. Dennis Patterson was present at the negotiating session on Friday night, where agreement was reached on the outstanding issues.
The initialling of the claim is an important step, both for the Inuit who have been negotiating the claim for about 15 years, and for the creation of a new territory called Nunavut. I am sure that the Members of the House will join me in offering congratulations to the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut on the successful negotiations of the initialled document.
---Applause
Contained in the claim is an affirmation of the Inuit ownership over 350,000 square kilometres of land, including 36,000 square kilometres of land with subsurface rights; the provision by the federal government of $580 million, in 1989 dollars, in the form of a capital transfer to be paid over the next 14 years; detailed provisions which ensure participation by Inuit on boards with responsibilities in the fields of wildlife management, land use planning, water management and environmental and socio-economic reviews of development proposals.
A very important article in the agreement is related to the political development of the new territory in the Eastern Arctic called "Nunavut." The article confirms that the federal government will recommend to Parliament, legislation to establish a new Nunavut territory with its own legislative assembly and public government. There needs to be much discussion before this occurs, and the article further states that a political accord shall be negotiated between this government, TFN and Canada. This accord will establish the date of parliamentary legislation, the types of powers of the new government, certain principles relating to the financing of the Nunavut government and the time limits for the coming into existence and operation of the new government. As the Members of the House may appreciate, there is much work to be done on the development and approval of this accord as the parties aim to reach agreement on it by April 1 of next year. It is expected that the Inuit will vote on the acceptance of the claims settlement in the late spring, with the ratifying legislation being introduced into Parliament a few months later.
---Applause