Mahsi, Madam Chairperson. Madam Chairperson, as indicated, I will be making remarks on every one of the recommendations that the committee is putting forward. As a result, Madam Chairperson, there has been a great deal of discussion, over the past several years, concerning the political accord between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the aboriginal governments. While the Members of this Assembly and Cabinet have consistently supported the negotiations of a political accord, previous negotiations have not met with success.
I am very familiar with this issue because early in my tenure as Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, I led negotiations on behalf of this government with members of the Aboriginal Summit on a statement of political relations. While several representatives of aboriginal governments initialled a draft agreement, we could never reach a final agreement that met the interests of all parties. More recently, Mr. Erasmus, Mr. Dent, and myself were tasked by Caucus to make another attempt at an accord with the Aboriginal Summit but still with no success. For this reason, the government has invested its time and resources, over the past several months, to build support for an intergovernmental forum. Such a forum would bring together representatives of the public, aboriginal governments to discuss issues of common interest. We are beginning to see support for this process built. In the spring, Dene chiefs passed a motion forming an intergovernment chiefs committee to pursue discussions on an intergovernment forum. In May, we met with the Dene chiefs in Yellowknife to discuss a vision for the Northwest Territories, as set out in the agenda for the new North.
We also discussed, in detail, the need for an intergovernmental process where all governments could sit together to discuss these issues. At the recent Dene National Assembly in Jean Marie River, we were encouraged to see the chiefs adopt another motion reaffirming their commitment to an intergovernmental process. We have met with representatives of other aboriginal governments over the past several months and are encouraged by the support that seems to exist for such a process. The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has also been a strong proponent of such a process. It is through this multilateral process that the government would prefer to pursue the negotiations of a political accord and other arrangements that better clarify the ongoing relationships between public and aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories. On that basis, the government is prepared to provide a work plan setting out our views as one participant in the intergovernmental process concerning the negotiations of a political accord. Mahsi, Madam Chairperson.