Mr. Chairman, I certainly sympathize with you, and your problem in your area. This is the first I have known that there are two very complex issues going on in your constituency. I certainly do sympathize because these are big issues, and very complex and confusing. Most of the only people that can really understand a lot of this material are people who are professors of political science or lawyers, but even at that, when you get them in the room, they can never agree.
So, it is a very complex thing, and I sympathize that you have to go through this both at the same time in your area. All I can say is that, hopefully, your people will take the package of information that has been tabled, and more of it that is coming around and being translated, so that it will get into peoples' homes. Once they see the material in front of them, they will see that they have heard these things before.
During our multilateral process, you will all recall, that at the end of everyday at the meetings, the honourable Joe Clark, Premiers and Ministers, aboriginal leaders, would come out to the podium and explain to the media what went on that day, and what was agreed to that day. By and large, almost all of the things that were agreed to in the aboriginal package were agreed to way back in June, so that information has been in our communities now for a long time.
I know that some aboriginal media have taken some time to try to explain what is there. I can only hope that with this some people will be reassured when they see the words in front of them, that they have heard this before and that, while it is very complex, in many ways, it is very straightforward.
On the question of not having legal text, I must confess I am not sure exactly if there is a decision not to provide legal text. I am not clear on that. What I do know, because I have been sitting in those rooms and hate to do it when it is a beautiful sunny day, I would rather be outside, but stuck in these constitutional rooms as I was, all of last Friday, listening to lawyers argue about where to put a comma, and whether it ought to be an or, or an and, or an or/and. I do know, that with the legal text that is being done now, is to put in legal language the leaders have agreed to.
These are the instructions to the officials, and I know that officials for the Government of the Northwest Territories are there to protect the interests of what your leaders have agreed to. Your officials have to make sure that the legal language does not deviate from what has been agreed to.
What has been agreed to is, in layman's language, in this Consensus Report on the Constitution. Now, I think that when you see the legal text it will just be these kinds of words put in legal language. That is the whole purpose of the exercise that we are engaged in now, in the meetings that are going on in Ottawa. What is being asked of Canadians, everywhere, is here is what has been agreed to in everyday language, and even that is complex.
Now, do you agree to support this agreement, that we ought to proceed to amend the Constitution on the basis of this agreement? Once the referendum is over, we will then be in a different kind of a process. Your Legislature will then have an accord put in front of it. First of all, the leaders will all have to get together, again, and say "that this legal language, and look at that, it is about an inch thick, accurately reflects the agreement reached in Charlottetown." Therefore, that is the legal language that we ought to approve in our various legislatures, in Parliament, in the provinces, in the Northwest Territories, and in the Yukon.
It is not over on October 26. What we have to do, by October 26, is come to a decision, as to whether, or not, this Consensus Report on the Constitution, ought to form the basis to amend the Constitution of Canada. Not for all time, but for now. If yes, then obviously we go the next step. Your legislature will be spending hours, I would assume, pondering over this legal language.
I just thought I might mention those things to you, and see if that might help explain where we are at. I understand that there is information being prepared now, if not already available in some of the aboriginal languages, including Inuktitut.