Thank you, Mr. Chairman. After some discussion on both the lands claims settlement area and the mandate of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, we requested yesterday if the Premier would look at amalgamating all funding for aboriginal programs, self-government talks, and devolution under one ministry, but I did not get the Minister's response. Is he looking at that? When will that come into place? So on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Picco. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that motion that came forward yesterday, we still have to look at it and see what it really means. In the type of work that we would be doing and self-government and in land claims, we rely on Justice, rely on MACA, and so forth, so it would be difficult to lump those type of resources together, but perhaps there is a way to streamline what we are already doing under the jurisdiction that the ministry has. I think I could say that we are looking into it and I think it is a good motion that was passed there and we will try to comply by that. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. I have Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Did Mr. Minister want to respond? Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think these are very good comments. I think it only adds to the development of the constitution development with these type of comments. I know the three models that we have there, they all have merits and there has been discussion already that we have to take a look at each one of them and see what is good in each one of them and see whether they could mesh. Ultimately, the idea there is to try to get a constitution together that is reflective of the society and I know it is here today, if that constitution would carry on into the future.

The current status quo, the N.W.T. Act, is something that was developed for us in Ottawa, many years ago and we use it, but it does not really reflect the realities of how the societies and the communities today work. We make our own arrangements. If it is going to be truly a society that is reflective of how the society is in the north and how we would like to see it in the future, it has to be developed by us in the north here together. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Barnabas.

I would like to make a motion to report progress.

The motion is on the floor to report progress and the motion is not debatable. All those in favour of the motion, please signify. Keep it up. Against the motion. Motion, this time, is defeated democratically. Thank you. Line by line? Agreed?

Agreed.

Thank you. On page 2-46 of the 1997/98 main estimate activity, summary. Aboriginal Affairs, operations and maintenance. Total operations and maintenance, $2,377,000. Agreed? Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. The Honourable Minister, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I apologize for missing that one response to the honourable Member. He had a whole series of concerns and I was diligently going through the list but I had a note saying that my replies were too long so I might have deleted it. I guess the short answer for the urgency of 1999 is that there will be less incentive for the federal government after 1999 to make constitutional changes. Thank you.

Thank you. Does that answer your question, Mr. Ootes? Mr. Ootes.

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have had these kinds of discussions, as well. We would like to see that we carry on the course of action that we took to try to have something in place by 1999. I know the window for putting a document forward, so that it will run through the legislative course in Ottawa is very timely. I think that, at this point in time, I am optimistic that if we are able to achieve what we say we want to do with the consultation process and the revision and a ratification by the fall, perhaps we still have enough time to have legislation go through the Parliament in Ottawa before 1999. That is the intention all along.

Yes, there is a lot of unknowns out there. We have a lot of different bodies in the north here that are participants. The different aboriginal regions and the groups along with us here in the Legislative Assembly. The federal government are also now directly involved with us, committed to go through this process with us. These are outside factors of which we have to be aware. At any time, there might be some major problems which may come up that may slow us down.

At the same time, the federal government is going into an election, so there again there are outside factors. We realize these things. The worst case scenario would probably be that we may not have something there by 1999, and then we have to start thinking of different options, maybe what the honourable Member is suggesting here is that, are there other options out there? My answer there is, no, we are pursuing this course of action, and perhaps we should be seriously considering what the honourable Member is saying, that we may not be able to meet the 1999 deadline and we may have to see whether this type of process that is under way could carry on beyond 1999. I hope that we could be able to maintain that course of action and be successful in getting the legislation through Parliament by 1999. However, there is possibilities out there that it may not happen and we will have to consider other options. Thank you.

Thank you. We are dealing with Aboriginal Affairs. We have Mr. Henry and Mr. Barnabas that wanted to speak and we also have Mr. Erasmus. To Aboriginal Affairs. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Minister has alluded to the letter from the federal government, Indian Affairs, regarding concerns they have with the proposed document, Partners in a New Beginning, the constitutional process to the west, the proposed constitution. Will the Minister be encouraging the group to make adjustments to the document that will go to the public or go to the communities for consideration? Will he be making the adjustments required or suggested by the federal government? Will he be amending the document prior to going out for consultation to conform to what the federal government, wants to address their concerns? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the members of the Constitutional Working Group, at the last meeting, made references to a rolling draft. As the different concerns come up, then those concerns have to be taken into consideration to try to satisfy all of the different parties to this whole document. Yes, since the document was tabled in October, a lot of different reactions have taken place, and a lot of suggestions have also been made on how to alter this document already to-date. All these different suggestions will be brought forward when this document is presented to the public for the consultation process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Henry.