Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too am in full support of this motion. I believe there are lots of issues out there that people might not think are crucial or critical to land claims groups or aboriginal people, but it does put a strain on the relationship between the people in the aboriginal communities, the aboriginal leadership, the chiefs, the band councils, the tribal councils and also people at the national organizations such as Dene Nation. When they have to react to development proposals that come in front of them. Also this government is a key player in land claims and self-government negotiations. You are a player at the table and also, once those claims are settled you are signatories to those land claim agreements. I will use an example in regard to the Gwich'in Land Claim Agreement and the Inuvialuit Agreement. The Government of the Northwest Territories is responsible for Wildlife Act amendments. Those are a very serious component of the land claim agreement. Aboriginal people rely on wildlife and also forestry and other aspects in relation to the land and resources that are out there. This government is responsible for making those amendments to ensure those land claim agreements are enacted.

Another area that we touched on, that I raised, is the Northern Accord process. The problem with land claim agreements is the Northern Accord process was an avenue for the federal government to get out of the responsibility that they had and not agree to resource development agreements with aboriginal people in the land claim agreement itself. What they said is we will put another table over here. You guys can negotiate through the Northern Accord process, that is where you get your resource development benefits. That is where you will be able to know exactly how you are going to be economically able to receive benefits through developments that are going to take place in your settlement region. That component of the Gwich'in Land Claim Agreement and the Sahtu Agreement, even the Inuvialuit, has not been concluded. That is why whenever you talk about development, aboriginal people cannot go to the developer and say, sorry these are all the conditions you have to meet, this is part of the benefit agreement. We negotiate socio-economic agreements on the diamond industry, but over and above that as part of the land claim agreement there are also agreements that have to be fulfilled under the economic side of our land claim agreements.

We talk about negotiated contracts. We talk about economic benefits to aboriginal people. There is an economic section of the land claim agreement which is not clear because it has never been implemented. I strongly support this motion and I would like the, just for the other Members, this does not only pertain to negotiated land claim agreements or self-government agreements. It always pertains to implementing the existing land claim agreements that are there. That is something I do not see in here, but for the record, the people that do have land claims are having problems implementing their land claim agreements right now. I would like to, just for the record, make them aware that this also should relate to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.