Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the honourable Member is making reference to chief and band councils, and these four communities in my constituency that are the community governments. These chief and band councils, they have Treaty 11 with the federal government. In there, that whole area is still in dispute. They have not sat down and negotiated with the federal government in regards to the rights that they have under the treaties. This is the Deh Cho region. I have always said that whatever arrangements the chief and council have in regards to how the government itself is with the federal government, this is for the treaties. This territorial government here came in after those treaties were put in place. Therefore, there is dispute. This is why, I believe, that the Inuvialuits went and settled their claims to resolve the land and resource issue, the same as the Gwich'in and the Sahtu. Now the Dogribs are negotiating. The Treaty 8 and the Fort Smith South Salt First Nations are also beginning to negotiate. They are dealing with the federal government first to initiate it. Now, we are having cases of self-government which deals with the governments of how the communities will govern themselves, in this case the Gwich'in and the Dogribs where the chief and councils are in there.

So that the whole question of the rights at the community level, yes, is a serious question. It still has to be resolved. It is between the chief and band councils and the federal government. That is the reality of the day. It is something that still has to be resolved. In the Deh Cho area, they are slowly evolving into a position where they are saying that they want to sit down and negotiate with the federal government based on the inherent right to self-government. I think that the position that this government has taken is that we support land claims discussions and want to move that along at the same time as self-government discussions, so that these areas could be explored and resolved.

I cannot go into a community, to a chief and band council and tell them that this government is not going to give you any money unless you conform to the way we want you to operate. We have to respect that. In the small communities, there are non-aboriginal people that live in these communities, but the large majority are the aboriginal people. I think that another department, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, has attempted over the years to try to resolve this issue. Where you have a municipal government like a hamlet, it is easy. But then, in some cases in some communities, you have a hamlet council which is a municipal government created under the Government of the Northwest Territories. At the same time, you have the band council which has been there for many years through the treaties and then we have Metis locals as well involved. In the west, it is a little different from the east but here we have to respect the situation and each case is different in these communities.

For example, in Fort Simpson, the village council and the band and the Metis internally formed a tri-council arrangement to see how they could work together. This is why I am saying that it is important to develop a constitution that is reflective of what is a reality in the north and sure I go to the communities and we talk about programs and services. The First Nations want to settle their claims. In some cases they are. I think the Deh Cho is the last area where there is no formal negotiations under way. They have indicated that they want to sit down with the federal government to start talks and the ball is really in the federal government's court whether they are going to talk formally, in a negotiation-type setting with the Deh Cho First Nations. Mr. Speaker, it is a very complicated issue as you are aware of. Yes, this government is funding the communities to provide services. They do not get the full amount of funding that a hamlet gets, so there is a program under MACA called SOAP that provides basic services. There is a contract with the First Nations to provide those services. I think this government is going to continue to do that and hopefully down the line there will be a time when these communities will be sitting down with the federal government to do their land claim discussions or the inherent right to self-government discussions. Thank you.