Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it is essential that we do conclude these negotiations, but I do not think it helps anything to make these agreements with national companies such as TransCanada Pipeline and make people aware of what pipelines do and when they cross. You are talking a pipeline up the MacKenzie Valley. It will have a major impact on the aboriginal people and the aboriginal groups that live in those areas. One of the key components to the land claim agreements in regard to the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in, the Sahtu and all the Dogrib is this component of their land claim agreement to conclude these Northern Accord negotiations. It was done in the Yukon. I do not see why the Yukon government is any different than this government. They dealt with the aboriginal people. They were able to conclude their Northern Accord negotiations. They put the resources forth. They managed to sit down and talk with the aboriginal people, and they did come up with the agreement. I have to ramble on. I do not take six minutes like Mr. Kakfwi, so I am going to take my time here. I would like to make this government aware this has been done in the Yukon. This agreement has been here since 1988, eleven years...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just getting to the supplementary. This government has had four years to work on this item, yet no progress has been made, and this government is signing agreements with other jurisdictions. When is this government going to put the priority on these Northern Accord negotiations and try to conclude with the aboriginal people and not use cost as a factor and sit down and set up a table up to start negotiations as soon as possible?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the issue of transferring positions from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's Northern Affairs Program to the North. This has been an ongoing issue for the last three years, with an effort by this government and certainly I have spoken about it for the last three years, to try and pursue the transfer of those positions. It is our understanding that the Northern Affairs Program has 135 positions in Ottawa, but if we are reasonable about it, we can identify 60 to 70 positions that could potentially be transferred to the North that are dedicated strictly to northern programs. That may have to be divided between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Now, the department has done studies on this, Mr. Speaker, and the studies did suggest that this should come about. There were two studies completed, and there was to be a third phase, but the department felt that there was no necessity for the third phase. I understood that the Minister of Indian Affairs and

Northern Development was going to make an announcement on this matter a number of weeks ago. My question is for the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development to give us an update. First, let me ask if he has had any discussions recently with the federal Minister about this issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier has been taking the lead on this issue. As I understand it, the federal government hired a consultant to advise them on how best to proceed to answer the question of whether they should go through the exercise of decentralizing staff and their responsibilities of administration to the territories of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon, particularly in regard to the Northern Affairs Program. They have already done phase one and phase two of the study, and as I understand, recently Jane Stewart, the Minister, has said she will forego phase three and simply fortify herself to make a decision on the issue of whether or not she agrees to decentralize staff and resources from the department and the Northern Affairs program within her department to the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon. The Premier is planning to have a meeting with Ms. Stewart next week, and this will be on the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Has our government analyzed the positions that are affected? It seems that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs has identified 135 positions. Then they stated, but only a certain percentage of that really affects programs here in the North. The rest are policy and so forth. Could the Minister tell me if we have done our own analysis of these positions to see which ones are appropriately positioned in the North? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have done some analysis of the positions and the resources that are at stake here, and we should be prepared to table that for Ministers or for Members when it is available so that they can review those. Hopefully, a decision will be made fairly shortly by the Minister, Jane Stewart. She is still the Minister. There has been no Cabinet shuffle, so fortunately she now has time to make that decision. I will look forward to hearing from her and our Premier next week. Thank you.

At the time that I raised this issue, I asked if this government would request the federal government to do an analysis of all positions of all departments in the federal government. Could the Minister tell me if that has been followed up on with regard to transfers to the North? For example, there is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment, and there are others. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The federal government, as far as we know, has been only open to reviewing the question of decentralization from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Fisheries and Oceans and Environment and the other federal departments have no interest and no mandate to discuss decentralization of their staff and resources at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If they are not interested in discussing this in the other departments, what is this government doing about addressing that particular issue to try and see what is more appropriately located here in the North? Their argument for the Northern Affairs Program is that it is more effective to have people that are making decisions on the North located here in the North. If that is the case with other government officials in other departments, then it should also pertain to those departments. As I said earlier, a good example was that if it had not been for us here in the North, us being all people of the North, Hay River people, the Yellowknife people, the legislative people, the Ministers, the MLAs, we would not have a value-added industry developing here in the Northwest Territories, which could be a major industry in Canada. We are the ones that are able to identify this. We need to also address this in terms of other departments and see whether those positions would be more appropriately located here. I repeat my question, what is this government doing about analyzing other departments? Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have not done any work on analyzing the question of decentralization and its benefits and impact with regard to the North and with respect to federal departments. We have not done any work in that area. Thank you.