Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Something that is this large -- it is a very important issue and what the Minister is saying is the first time I am hearing about it. Because I received the literature for constitutional development like everybody else and in there what it states is that there is going to be a vote in the fall, but this constitutional development is not to decide whether it is going to be yes or no, but if there is going to be division then how the West is going to look, that is the impression that I got. That was my understanding of the literature that I received. There was nothing in there that says some money should be set aside to do a public consultation. That is my understanding of it. The people I discussed this with have the impression that there is going to be vote, but the discussion on constitutional development is not to decide whether you are going to vote yes or no, but to see how it does look if it does happen, It is late in this stage of the game to discuss the consultation process in the West. I am asking this question because I am curious.
I know you do not have any kind of authority over different political groups, but it seems to me that if a group were to decide to request some additional funding, I think the funding they may have received to date may have expired. If a group were to request additional funding to do some public consultation, for example, in my region, the people I talked to at the beginning of the week had no impression. The only information they received was the little bit they read in the newspaper.
If there is going to be a public consultation process -- and I think it should happen in the West as well -- and if there are requests from groups in the West to do that, then I think it is only fair that funding be made available to them. I would like the Executive Council to take this into consideration. Mahsi.