Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my discussions with Mr. Irwin earlier on in the year, he indicated to me that I should seek or attempt to seek consensus amongst those directly affected once an accord would come into place, so there are no current discussions under way in terms of the transfer of an accord between our government and the federal government until such time as we try to reach an accommodation with each other as to the approach and the content that we want within the accord.

I am not trying to be evasive. That is just where we are at right now. It is an attempt to reach a common position amongst all aboriginal and public government institutions, and then, if that consensus could be reached -- and I stress "if" -- we would move forward in an orderly way with our federal counterparts to try to make an arrangement for the expeditious transfer of this responsibility. Thank you.