Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason we are making this motion is outlined in the whereas clauses. We believe that these land claims and self-government negotiations have been going on for years and years. They do create political and economic and even social instability by taking so long. People, investors are reluctant to invest in areas where claims are not settled. Even where claims are settled, if the self-government negotiations are still ongoing, there is still a bit of reluctance in those areas as well to invest. It seems that this government while we are placing a priority and we are working hard in the land claims area, we think that there should be a higher priority placed and whatever this government can do to facilitate those claims, I should not say whatever, but we feel the government should work harder to facilitate these claims so that they can go faster. I think a good gesture was done in the past year where more staff was hired so that there could be more people working in the land claims areas. These are the types of things that have to continue. We have to ensure that there are enough people working on the claims so that our government is not holding things up, so that if there is research that needs to be done, if negotiators have to negotiate that there are actually people, enough people dedicated to this so that they do not hold things up.

It is fine for some of the regions I suppose if their land claims are already concluded, but there are some that are not. There is a lot of them. There are the Metis, North Slave Metis, South Slave Metis, Akaitcho Treaty 8, the Dogribs are close, but they are still not finalized, the Deh Cho. There are a lot of groups out there that are still trying to successfully negotiate their land claims and some of them now are moving into self-government and that has been an outstanding sore point as well In the past they have not been able to deal with self-government in the land claims. Now there has been a movement and we feel that it is time that a very high priority be placed on this.

Mr. Speaker, the other issue is that this government needs clarity on the devolution issue and movement on the land claims and self-government issue will help to clarify that. We know that there have been attempts in the past particularly with a Northern Accord, but those have failed and those are largely failed because there are no land claims in some areas or self-government agreements. Those are the main reasons why we are asking for this motion to be passed and that this government place a very high priority on the settlement of land claims and self-government agreements. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.