Mr. Speaker, in the case of the communities in the Delta, we have not got an official invitation to deal with the community of Inuvik, but we had a request to meet with the chief and council of Inuvik. We had arranged that. The chief was weathered out that day. We had a brief one hour discussion with those people who were available. We gave them a commitment that we would come back on invitation to meet with the chief to begin the discussions at that level again.

We went to Fort McPherson and discussed the approach generally with the chief. We had some discussions for about three hours in the afternoon and another three or four hours in the evening at the public meeting. There, we were asked for specific information. Much of it was in the area of Justice and corrections. We undertook to provide that information. We were aware that the community was developing and was going to forward a proposal to the federal government on a justice project. We were asked if we could assist the community by doing what we could to make sure that the federal government responded in a reasonable time to the proposal. We said we would do that. We were asked if we could provide some interim money to support the work of the justice committee so that it could hire someone on an interim basis and provide some honorariums for the members who had been working on a volunteer basis for a great many months up until then. We agreed to do that at that time. We have since met that commitment. We took a comprehensive proposal from the Gwich'in Tribal Council and have had some discussions on possible approaches since then with the Gwich'in.

We had a meeting in Arctic Red River where the community brought to our attention that it had a surplus amount of money that was available to them since we had nothing of substance to transfer, because the community of Arctic Red River has very few committed resources from this government. They asked if, since they already knew that we were going to say that we have no money, we could help them put the surplus to use the way they wanted. We made that commitment. We have worked with them since then, and I think that surplus has been made available for use the way that the community had asked in the first place. There has been an expression of appreciation from that community for some of the work we have done. We need to come back.

The last I checked with the Gwich'in leadership, they were non-committal, but they know that we are prepared to come back in January or February, whenever time is available, to make sure that the work we started is ongoing. We have indicated to them that we would be inviting those people who should be there, such as officials and M.L.A.s, to be present at that meeting. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I invite input from the M.L.A.s on whether or not they want to set a time to discuss this implementation plan, and whether it should be moved into Committee of the Whole or left as a tabled document. I expect that M.L.A.s will be commenting on the document and that communities will, perhaps, be commenting on this document also and getting back to us. If it requires some alteration it will be done. We want to make the communities aware that we are still pushing as much as we can with this priority. If communities are interested we will be prepared to make a commitment to travel into those communities to get discussions going. All M.L.A.s are encouraged to be part of this and to play whatever role they feel they should play. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there is a group of aboriginal employees in the Kitikmeot region who have a complaint laid before the Human Rights Commission. The complaint is that they have been discriminated against on the basis of race by the Government of the Northwest Territories. The complaint is not going to be dealt with by the Department of Personnel or by this government but by the Human Rights Commission.

Having said this, we are taking steps to address this for ourselves. We sent the Assistant Deputy Minister, Darryl Bohnet, into the Kitikmeot, yesterday, to tell us on what the situation and circumstances are with these employees, if there is any cause for concern on our part, if there is anything we can do and if there are any findings which should be brought to my attention as a Minister. These are serious allegations and there have been complaints raised by certain employees and the M.L.A. for Kitikmeot, Mr. Bernhardt, over the last year or so. I felt that some effort should be made to send someone from senior management in there to assess the situation on a preliminary basis. Thank you.