Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to take the opportunity today to express my disappointment, and the apparent inability of our Minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs, the Honourable Stephen Kakfwi, to answer, what I found, to be the simplest question posed to him.
Mr. Speaker, and honourable Members in this House, you will recall yesterday I posed a simple question to the Minister. All I wanted to know, Mr. Speaker, was when will this document, "Working Towards a Common Future", which has been tabled in this House, be brought before the committee of the whole, for discussions by Members of this House?
The Minister, in my opinion, rambled on and on, for several minutes using up our time allocated in question period, and commenting on everything, except the question I had asked.
I still do not know the answer, Mr. Speaker. I am wondering whether the Minister does? Mr. Speaker, this commission was developed in 1991. Many different constitutional scenarios have been deliberated nationally and within the territories, since the initial preparation of the Commission Report. If it is not the wish of the Minister, and the Cabinet, to deal with this report, then why does the Minister not say so to the public? Why does he tell this House whether he intends to put the Commission Report on the shelf, until these other constitutional initiatives reach a clearer conclusion.
I feel that it is totally unacceptable, and clearly irresponsible of the Minister, to phrase his returns to our questions in a fashion that skirts around the issue in this House. If he has made the mistake about pushing ahead with the commission, at the time he did, knowing that there were other constitutional developments on the horizon, then why can he not just admit it now? By continually rambling and avoiding our questions, the Minister's conduct totally frustrates the Members, takes up valuable time in the House, and accomplishes literally nothing.
Thank you.
---Applause