Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that negotiations have reached an important milestone with the Dogrib First Nation and Canada on the first combined land claim and self-government agreement-in-principle in the Northwest Territories.

This agreement-in-principle is historic. It represents a new chapter in the development of new governance models in the North. It also is an example of this government's support and recognition of the aboriginal inherent right to self-government.

We are committed to investing the time and resources necessary to develop new partnership arrangements with aboriginal governments. We have emphasized many times that peoples must develop respectful relationships with one another to make the North a better place to live in and to raise our children.

We know the political landscape of the North is changing dramatically, as we work to redefine our relationships. Just four short months ago, the people of Nunavut achieved their goal of a new territory. Now we continue the process of redesigning our system of governance in the Northwest Territories. This must be done with aboriginal and public governments.

Mr. Speaker, the Dogrib Agreement-in-Principle will be initialled by the three chief negotiators at the Dogrib Annual General Assembly in Gameti on August 9, 1999. By initialling this document, the negotiators are recommending the document to their respective governments for review. Just as importantly in our view, this will allow the document to be released for the information and consideration of all interested parties.

Once approved and signed by all three parties, the agreement-in-principle will set the framework for negotiating a final agreement.

Mr. Speaker, while this is an important and historic event in this process, it is important to note that several outstanding issues need to be resolved before a final agreement can be concluded. Key amongst these are issues related to the financing of self-government. We have not yet reached a resolution at the Dogrib table on self-government financing, fiscal arrangements or taxation issues. The Minister of Finance will be following up with a more detailed statement on these issues later today.

Mr. Speaker, another key issue for the Government of the Northwest Territories is the resolution of overlap issues between the Dogrib First Nation and adjacent regions.

This government continues to insist that substantial progress must be made to resolve these outstanding overlap issues before the agreement-in-principle can be signed. Therefore, I urge the Dogrib First Nation to immediately enter into discussions with aboriginal governments with overlap interests in the North Slave region to develop a process that will lead to a fair and mutually satisfactory resolution of these issues.

Mr. Speaker, getting to this important milestone at the Dogrib table has been a challenge. However, it shows that aboriginal rights negotiations in the Northwest Territories are moving forward in a positive, constructive and timely manner.

I would like to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by the three chief negotiators and their teams during this process and thank them for their valuable contributions. This government will take the opportunity after initialling to fully review the document and to work on resolving some of the outstanding issues that remain, including those that I have outlined here today.

Mr. Speaker, the Dogrib Agreement-in-Principle will become a public document after it is initialled on August 9. I encourage the Members of this House and all citizens of the Northwest Territories with an interest in this matter to take some time to review it. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause