Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am not suggesting that we put money forward to get the groups together. According to our policies, we support the land claims process in the Northwest Territories. We have done that all along with Inuvialuit, the Inuit with the Nunavut claims. You name it. All the claims that were settled. This government was instrumental in making sure that this came about. We provided the support in the form of encouragement and facilitating and to make sure that things moved along. So you need to have that type of environment for claims to be settled. That is what I meant. We are there to try to get the groups together and to facilitate it. If there was total opposition from the government for any claims, I do not think that we would see the type of claims that we have today. I think we would be still probably negotiating a lot of them, but then the direction here from the people and all the different interest groups in the north is that the people in the north see finalization of all the land claims in the Northwest Territories. So that once we have certainty to who owns the land then we could move along and so forth. I think, just to recap and simplify my answer, is that yes we are there in the form of facilitators. I am not talking about providing funds to get the groups together.
Jim Antoine on Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 10th, 1997. See this statement in context.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 9th, 1997
Page 510
Jim Antoine Nahendeh
See context to find out what was said next.