Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to commend and recognize the people who have worked in putting this constitutional shell and court together. The two leaders who have left, Mr. Mercredi and Ms. Kuptana, as well as Phil Fraser, and Mr. Belcourt, also recognizing the Honourable Stephen Kakfwi, and the Honourable Nellie Cournoyea as well, I know it has been a long hard road getting to this period in time, in the history of this House, because I am a former Chief of my people back in Fort Simpson. I was involved in constitutional discussions about ten years ago, and I know how hard things were at that time, and to have come to these stages is a great achievement, as far as I am concerned.
From my part of the world, I represent a majority of aboriginal people in the southwestern portion of the Northwest Territories. Six communities. I have six band councils, one Metis local, plus village municipality, and a hamlet, so I represent a diverse group of people, and a couple of concerns that I have are, most of the presentations that were made here today, I acknowledge, and I support some of the positions, but one of my concerns is that lack of information about this important referendum that is going to occur here on October 26.
I understand there are some sections of this Charlottetown Accord that are incomplete in terms of legal text, and in terms of some negotiations, so it is very difficult to tell people exactly what is in this accord at this present time. So, I am wondering how the people who are advocating a "yes" vote here today will sit to make sure that everybody is voting on a very well informed basis.
The second concern that I have is there was a discussion about the Metis Nation Accord, and according to the consensus, the document "Consensus Report on the Constitution", it does make a civic note way in the back, and it says that this accord is still being developed. It is difficult to know exactly what this Metis Nation Accord is, especially because some of the communities I represent have very few Metis people in them, and if they are there, they are all our relatives anyway, so how could we do this? If this package is going to be voted on by everybody, then we should have a clear understanding of every aspect of it, and this one here is a very important one. If you are advocating "yes" for people to vote on it, I was wondering if you could explain to me how this is going to work in terms of the Dene people who are living in these communities. What does it mean for Dene who are treaty living in these small communities with this Metis Accord? How could you make me feel comfortable with this particular accord, so that I could explain to the people back home what it means to them.