Mr. Speaker, the point was made last week by one of the Members that this Legislative Assembly is not bound by decisions or commitments made by previous Legislatures. I do not want to quibble about the point, but the fact is the last Legislature, in July of last year, through political agreement, made two motions. One motion committed and directed the Executive to set up a western constitutional commission and fund it appropriately. I think the funding came to about $1.7 million. This was in response to a request and discussions through a committee of western leaders, which included the Dene Nation, the Metis Association at that time, the Gwich'in Tribal Council, the Sahtu Tribal Council and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, as well as myself and another Member of the Legislative Assembly.

The agreement among MLAs was reached unofficially that this would be done, and the subsequent motion that was moved in this House dealt with the aspirations of people in the Eastern Arctic. It was moved by eastern MLAs, and was supported by everyone here, that there would be some public awareness campaign set up and appropriate money set aside for that to be carried out in the East, and that this would be co-ordinated through the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut's office and it would involve MLAs, to make sure that there is public involvement; and there is some implication that because it is public money, that there was some involvement by the Legislature. I think that money was set up to not exceed, totally -- this fiscal year it was about $134,000. 1 may not be exact on my figures, but it was not to total more than $250,000. That was the way that this Legislature and this government proceeded.

I raise that because I think it has to be understood that the way we have operated up until now -- and the Legislature is free to do what it wants -- is that money was sought by the different groups that worked with us on political and constitutional development. The general consensus of the aboriginal leaders and representatives of this Legislature and the previous government was to put the full allocation money, set aside for the West, into the work of the Western Constitutional Commission. In the East there was a lesser amount set aside to do the political awareness.

I say that because that is where the direction went, and if Members seek to request that additional moneys be allocated, they should at least understand the mechanism and the process we have used up until now to do that. So as a Minister, if I get sufficient direction, I would of course have to consider it and see if it would not upset the political understanding that I have with the other aboriginal leaders and organizations about how we allocate the resources in this exercise. Thank you.