Mr. Speaker, the road to getting a land claim agreement for the Sahtu region has been a very long and difficult one. The Sahtu region, as we all know, is part of the Dene/Metis comprehensive claim agreement which was initialled in April of 1990, but later rejected at an assembly in July 1990. The federal government then agreed to negotiate a regional claims settlement based on the April 1990 agreement.
The regional agreement with the Sahtu Dene and Metis was initialled in March 1993, and the ratification vote was held July 1993. This agreement received overwhelming support from the people of the Sahtu region. Eighty-five per cent of the Dene and 99 per cent of the Metis in the Sahtu region voted in favour of this agreement. On June 23, 1994, the settlement legislation for this agreement was passed in the Parliament of Canada.
Under this agreement, approximately 2,000 beneficiaries in the Sahtu settlement area will receive title to 41,437 square kilometres -- approximately 16,000 square miles -- of land, of which 1,813 square kilometres -- approximately 700 square miles -- will include the title to subsurface resources.
The Sahtu Dene and Metis will receive financial payments of $75 million -- in 1990 dollars -- over a 15-year period, as well as a share of the resource royalties which the federal government receives each year from the Mackenzie Valley. The Sahtu Dene and Metis will receive 7.5 per cent of the first $2 million of resource royalties collected by government in each year and 1.5 per cent of any additional resource royalties in that year.
The agreement confirms the rights of the Sahtu Dene and Metis to hunt and fish throughout the settlement area, and it also gives them the exclusive right to trap throughout the settlement area.
The agreement guarantees the participation of the Sahtu Dene and Metis in the management of renewable resources within the settlement area, land use planning, environment impact assessment and review within the Mackenzie Valley and the regulation of land and water use within the settlement area in the Mackenzie Valley if a larger land and water board is established.
The federal government and the Government of the Northwest Territories have also committed...
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude.