Madam Speaker, the negotiations have been going on for a number of years and it's unfortunate that First Nations were not directly involved in those discussions, or at least to the extent that they should have been. I think it's shared by all First Nations that the master agreement should not be killed, as they say, but that they would like to negotiate some changes to the provisions. Namely, to see if we could put off the signing until there is clarification on the rights of First Nations with regard to water and the management and control of water.

As I said, there are some 32 First Nations that may possibly be required for signatures of such a document. I'm not certain that waiting to get those things clarified at this time is going to see the master agreement survive. So I'm not certain that the first interest, which is to see the management agreement as outlined in the master agreement survive such a condition. I think we are faced with either going ahead with it as is, with a political commitment to see what we can do to ensure that First Nations are more intricately involved in the execution and ongoing implementation of that agreement may be the compromise. Thank you.