Thank you, Madam Speaker. The initial request for us to travel to Edmonton was from the Treaty 8 Nation, who asked us if we would go down in support of them at the beginning of their negotiations on their land entitlement. They also wished that a parallel negotiation process be put in place to discuss programs and services to Treaty 8 people in the Northwest Territories. The Minister of Indian Affairs, Mr. Irwin, was conducting a series of meetings with all Treaty 8 people across Alberta and had set up a generous amount of time to meet with the Treaty 8 of the Northwest Territories. They requested that we be there in support of getting their negotiations going.

While we were down there, we also asked to have a meeting with the Minister of Indian Affairs in relation to setting up a process to deal with our overall financial arrangements for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.