Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to speak on the motion. I cannot support the motion the way it is written right now for a number of reasons. When this document came out, I sent it to the different communities that I represent so the people could look at it; and they did. The instructions that I received from my constituents were not to support this recommendation the way it is written. The reason for that, especially in the Nahendeh constituency area, has to do with the northern boundary of that constituency that has dipped down to conform to the Sahtu claim area. There are a couple of points I want to make on that.
First of all, whenever a claimant group is negotiating with the federal government, the neighbouring group -- for instance when the Sahtu were negotiating their claim with the federal government, involving the southern areas in the Deh Cho area -- is not consulted or involved in making a decision on where the boundaries are going to go. In fact, there is still a lot of concern from people, especially from the Pedzeh Ki area, which is the Wrigley area. Their traditional areas have been encroached upon by people from the Sahtu.
So when the northern boundary was moved down, it was a further alienation of lands, even though we're talking about the land here. For many people in the Deh Cho area, my constituency, there is a problem because they don't recognize that boundary at all. By aligning it with the Sahtu claim area, they don't agree with it.
The other point here is that when we instructed the Electoral District Boundaries Commission to realign the boundary, the motion specifically stated that they realign it to conform to the boundary to divide the Northwest Territories. That was the review to be undertaken for the area and boundaries of the existing electoral boundaries of the High Arctic, Kitikmeot, Kivallivik, Nunakput, Sahtu and the Tu Nedhe area. It had nothing to do with the Nahendeh area.
When the ad first came out, of course people in my area did not realize that it was going to involve their area, as well. But when this boundary commission report came out, it included realignment in our area, as well. The reason why the people in our area were under that opinion is because of the ad in the paper, which is before us under appendix II, page 5, that says we're going to be doing the existing electoral boundaries districts in the Sahtu area. But in our motion it says only to conform to the boundary, so we get mixed messages there.
After this came out, I went to the people I represent, which all elected people are supposed to do, to get feedback from them. The instruction was that they don't agree with the boundary for that reason. Furthermore, there are some groups within the Sahtu area, the Shihta Dene, who have stated that they don't agree with the boundary and they have some problems with the Sahtu claim. They have joined the Deh Cho First Nations because of that. It is their traditional area that is going to be into the Sahtu area. So I have major concerns about that.
I know people are saying that there are no people there, but that's not the point. The point is that we don't know what's going to happen in the future, and this might be in there for a long time. Some of the people may want to move over there; that's their traditional area. We don't know, they might be living there in the future. That's the intention of land claims, to re-establish your whole area.
But the point I want to re-emphasize is that when these claims were negotiated in the Sahtu, the views of the people in my constituency were not taken into consideration by the federal government or the claimant group, and they went ahead and said this is the area we're going to claim; too bad, that's the way it's going to go. So that leaves a very sour taste. We still do not agree with that.
Those were the points I was asked to make on this one, Mr. Chairman. As a result, I would like to move an amendment. Is there a proper way to do these things, Mr. Chairman? Okay.
Committee Motion To Amend Motion To Adopt Recommendations From Tabled Document 23-12(6)
I move that this motion be amended by amending the recommendations considering the electoral districts of Nahendeh and Sahtu by retaining the existing northern boundaries of the electoral district of Nahendeh. Mahsi cho.