Madam Speaker, it is very difficult when you're in a meeting where there are about 25 or 30 representatives of Treaty 8 in the NWT. They were expressing to the federal Minister of Indian Affairs, Mr. Irwin, that they wished to try to get a broader mandate on how they would negotiate with the federal government, in response to what the Minister of Indian Affairs stated as the parameters of the treaty land entitlement mandate.
I would say that the Friday night meeting was fairly optimistic that he would take a parallel or coordinated approach. There were many words to describe this approach. We wanted to make sure that everyone understood, including the Treaty 8 people and the Minister of Indian Affairs, that we were not about to be used in a parallel situation when it was his direct responsibility. As I've stated before, it is the federal government that is stating that they wish to support the inherent right to self-government.
There is some indication from some Members of the present government that it is in section 35. These are the areas on which the federal government is making statements. The Treaty 8 people wanted us to support them in trying to get this stance clarified so they would know what process they could take to deal with both the treaty land entitlement and self-government. They wanted to know if that was parallel or if there was another way to do it. We were there to make sure the discussions didn't go as they usually go where they have meetings and say the programs are funded from GNWT coffers. Our argument is, it doesn't matter where the funding comes from, the final decisions are up to the federal government to make.
I would like to be more clear, but Friday night seemed to be optimistic. On Saturday morning some of the officials met and some details were worked out. Right now, we are composing a letter to the federal government. Our Minister of Aboriginal Rights and Constitutional Development is putting a letter together indicating what we understood happened at the meeting. The fact is, the only thing I can be clear about is that the federal minister, Treaty 8 people and ourselves did agree we would have a process to deal with it so people wouldn't be going around slipshod to all the jurisdictions. That's what we agreed to, but there weren't any details determined on what that was going to be. Thank you.