Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, I have taken the concerns of the honourable Member very seriously when he first raised this issue in this House earlier on in the Legislative Assembly here and the instructions to our negotiators every time they go to the table and specifically even more strongly in the last session in Vancouver. Even prior to the last session in Vancouver I met with the grand chiefs and the forum chiefs of the Dogrib and among other concerns we raised the issue of the boundaries directly with them, saying this is going to be a political tough one for us if the boundary has not been resolved before you reach an AIP.
This was again raised at the negotiating table. I know there have been efforts put forward by the Dogrib Treaty 11 to talk with the chief in Ndilo here, as well as to representatives of the Dene in Deh Cho to try to resolve these two boundary issues. Specifically about the Ndilo and Detah people that are encompassed within the boundaries of the Dogrib Treaty 11, there was a meeting earlier today with the Grand Chief again on the negotiation issue there again. There again, I reiterated the concern that there should be some boundary arrangements prior to any agreement-in-principle and I understand from the Grand Chief, Joe Rabesca, saying that there was a MOU that was developed between Chief Fred Sangris of N'dilo and our own negotiator John B. Zoe. That is what I understand, but I do not know what the content of the MOU is. I do not know whether there is a boundary involved in the MOU, but since I do not know, I have to answer that there is no boundary that the Dogrib Treaty 11 and the Yellowknives Akaitcho agreed on to date. My understanding from what I have been told by the negotiators on the federal side is that the question of boundary must be dealt with before a final agreement. The federal government is still reluctant to divide up the North Slave region, so it is not a question of whether the Dogrib Treaty 11 want to draw a boundary. There is a question for the negotiating table, so the instruction to our negotiators coming up next week again is to further push this point. Thank you.