Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think every time we meet with community leaders, chiefs, regional leaders, and tribal council leaders of the aboriginal people, I think we take one step towards having a better understanding between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the aboriginal leaders.
There is an agenda for the new western territories that we have been pushing for sometime now that clearly lays out what this government is facing within the big picture area of getting governance right. We want to make sure the governance is right there, and we are working on the land claims in the Beaufort Delta. It includes the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit in the Delta. We are dealing with Deline and the Sahtu. We are dealing with the Dogrib on land claims and self-government arrangements, so we are trying to get governance right. Every time we meet with them, for example, we just had a meeting with Grand Chief Joe Rabesca and the chiefs of the Dogrib yesterday to continue a working relationship there. As well, we met with the chiefs when the chiefs had a meeting here. We had a very good meeting and a lot of good questions. We continue to meet with different leaders in the Aboriginal Summit. There is going to be a conference call later on today I will be attending with the Aboriginal Summit leaders.
We are working towards some kind of a political protocol, or a political accord with the aboriginal leaders of the Northwest Territories. There is a plan of having an intergovernmental forum sometime later on in the next few months that will include all of the aboriginal leaders, the government, different business people in the north, and different prominent leaders in the north. Then there is economic strategy that Mr. Kakfwi is responsible for that will include discussion. The Northern Accord or devolution that we have been talking about is part of the Agenda for the New North that has to have partnership arrangements if aboriginal government is going to succeed.
Mr. Speaker, there are lots of avenues in which this government is attempting to communicate or work very closely with the aboriginal leaders. There are differences of opinion in some areas on specific things that are understandable, that is the way things are, but overall, I think there is a very good working relationship and I think what we are doing with the agenda is to lay everything on the table so that everybody knows what it is that we are working with. I think that is the big step that we are taking in trying to have a better working relationship with the aboriginal people in the north. Thank you.