Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I must tell the House today that I was dismayed by the way the Minister for Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs answered yesterday's questions about the transfer of government programs and services to community self-government. I checked the unedited transcript just this morning to see if I had actually heard the Minister correctly. His response to my honourable colleagues from Inuvik and MacKenzie Delta essentially let us know that in eight and a half months, there has been no substantive progress towards establishing community transfer initiatives. From what I understood from the Minister's comments, all that has been accomplished has been a partial completion of a draft implementation strategy, and we hear that, and I quote, "a rather high level deputy minister's committee has philosophical or political differences, and is to blame for this." I have the Minister attributing the delay, and this initiative, to the honourable Members in this House, simply because we want to review and approve the media report recommendations on the Minister's implementation plan. Mr. Speaker, that is our job. When the Minister comes forward with the implementation details we will review them then, but it is not the fault of the Members on this side of the House that he decided to sit by and watch his rather high level deputy ministers run the show for the last eight and a half months, and then blame them for it.

Mr. Speaker, I can readily understand that in seven parts of the Northwest Territories there are going to be difficult constitutional matters, and philosophical differences, that we will need to form for part of the process leading up to community transfers. I fully support the Metis and Dene leaders in their desire to work these out, as they progress towards community or aboriginal self-government. In the east, Mr. Speaker, we have accepted the principle of public government for the last 20 years. Many of our communities are ready for community self-government now. This is the process that will power us towards the constitutional emergence of Nunavut. We cannot, and will not, allow the goal to be put on hold. The Minister should bring forward a paper, so that this House can move forward in reviewing it, and consulting with our community leaders. Thank you.

---Applause