Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, we are not definite on how we are going to factor in all these costs, but I am sure as we move along in our consultation processes with the communities, we will continue to identify the shortfalls. Hopefully, within the fiscal restraints, we can find some resolutions to those problems. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Allen. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regard to this item, will the Minister commit to allow communities in my riding...one of the ideas that is being thrown around is at the Beaufort Leaders Conference, have a meeting with the municipalities in my riding who will be affected by this new change, so they could sit down with this department and go through those costs that are not covered to date and the costs associated with the infrastructure, administration?

I would like to ask the Minister, is his department committed to ensure that there is continued dialogue and consultation with communities either at a regional level or a community level? I believe this new mechanism is not as clear as they make it out to be. You pretty well have to be a mathematician to figure out these formulas. I think in order for communities to really understand it, this government has to commit to consultation and dialogue with those communities.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly it is the endeavour of the department to consult with all communities. We have begun the process. It is important that the communities be aware of the number of changes and the direction we are going to be taking to work with the communities. It is not an easy task, but we intend to consult with all communities across the Northwest Territories to ensure that they as well as we are educated in the changeover in the formula funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister Allen. The time allocated for question period has expired. Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to opening address. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was approached by the South Slave Métis Nation to consider, and asked if I would first read their declaration, which was unanimously passed in Hay River last July 24th. I would read it into the record and then table it in this House. I consented to do that. Given its length, I have chosen to do it through replies to the opening address. I will do that. Thank you.

We, the indigenous Métis of the South Slave, affirm that we are a distinct Métis Nation within Canada with aboriginal rights to lands, resources, and governance throughout our traditional territory.

We hold these rights because we are direct descendants of First Nations and Métis people of the Mackenzie and Athabasca River Basins. Our Dene and Cree ancestors lived on these lands, which the creator gave them and governed themselves according to their own laws and customs from time before memory.

We have always lived in harmony with nature, in accordance with the great law that was given to our aboriginal ancestors by the Creator. We also lived in harmony with our Dene and Cree relations. We honour our aboriginal ancestors in relations.

Clearly, we are distinct from First Nations people. We, the indigenous Métis of the South Slave, are also direct descendants of the first people of European heritage to reach this region, long before Canada became a nation in 1867.

Before the fall of Quebec in 1759, French and mixed-blood "coureurs de bois" traveled into the Athabasca country, living with Dene and Cree families on the land. When North West Company traders explored north to Great Slave Lake in the 1780s, they met the family of the French-Cree "coureur de bois", Francois Beaulieu the First, and his Chipewyan wife Ethiba.

This family was only one of several Métis families established in the region in the 1700s. Because of their presence, trading companies set up posts in the area of what is now Fort Resolution beginning in the 1780s. All of the South Slave Métis are descended from one or more of these families.

Beaulieu and his son, Francois Beaulieu the Second, along with other early Métis families, including the Mandeville, Cayen, Houle, Poitras, Tourangeau, St. Germain, Mercredi, and Lafferty families were vital players in building a country that was to become Canada. Métis played a nationally significant role in northern exploration, the fur trade, and Treaty-making. At the same time, our ancestors were creating a new nation of Métis.

Francois Beaulieu the First was one of Alexander Mackenzie's voyageurs on his epic journey down the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789 and in 1792, up the Peace River and over the Rockie Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. His brother Jacques was an interpreter for explorer-trader Peter Pond.

Francois Beaulieu the Second and Francois Baptiste "le Camarade" de Mandeville were advisers, guides, hunters and interpreters for Sir John Franklin's successful expeditions to Great Bear Lake in the Arctic Coast. Beaulieu mapped the route to the north of the Coppermine River for Franklin via the Marion and Camsell rivers and Great Bear Lake. Beaulieu also brought Father Faraud, the first priest north of 60, to Fort Resolution in 1852.

Beaulieu resisted the Hudson Bay Company's monopoly in Rupert's land, travelling to trade as far as the Red River settlement in what is now Manitoba. He and his clan were based at Salt River, from where they hunted Buffalo, extracted salt from the Salt Plains for trade, and farmed, as well as operated the trading post. Beaulieu was considered a leader of the Dogrib people north of Great Slave Lake, as well as a trade chief of the Chipewyan south of Great Slave Lake. He traded with the Yellowknives and as far west as Fort Simpson.

Mandeville, who was allied by marriage to the distinguished Dogrib Chief Edzo, and a close friend of the famous Yellowknives Chief Akaitcho, helped make peace among the warring Dene peoples. The Mandevilles lived and hunted for trade as well as for domestic use in the Thelon River area by the 1830s. "Le Camarade" described and mapped the portage route via the upper Thelon to the Back River for the explorer George Back. Mandeville helped Fort Reliance for Back in 1833. The Mandevilles also founded the village at Little Buffalo River, near the present site of Fort Resolution.

These were not the only posts and villages the early Métis founded. In 1868, Joseph King Beaulieu, son of Francois Beaulieu the Second, founded a post at Fond du Lac, near the site of the present community of Lutselk'e. In 1874, King Beaulieu built the post at the foot of the Rapids of the Drowned that was to become Fort Smith, the terminus of the portage route to Smith's Landing-Fort Fitzgerald. Other communities founded by Métis in the same era include Jean River, Rocher Ricer and Smith's Landing-Fort Fitzgerald.

The Métis Nation of the South Slave arose during the same year as the Métis fur trade communities that grew up in the American Midwest-Great Lakes region and the historic Métis Nation of the Canadian prairies. Our Métis Nation eventually had trade and marriage links to these communities. Many of us are related to Métis people from the Great Lakes or Red River who came north in the 1700s and 1800s. The Lafferty family is one distinguished family who can trace their heritage back to the American Great Lakes Métis communities via Red River, Fort Chipewyan and Fort Resolution.

We honour our Métis women, who were among the first northern aboriginal women to receive an Euro-Canadian education. Some, such as Francois Beaulieu's daughter Catherine, were educated at Red River and returned to act as educators and catechists. Those who were the wives of traders were often their community's midwives and healers. They were also known for their strength of character and independence. Catherine Beaulieu had her own dog team, and made lengthy journeys around Great Slave Lake to trade with the people.

We are proud Métis, known historically as 'the free people', or 'gens libre' in Michif French. As early as 1862, Francois Beaulieu the Second identified himself to Father Emile Petitot as "a Métis born and bred in the woods". He lived for nearly 100 years and left many descendants. The priests referred to him fittingly as "Le Patriarche" - the patriarch or founding father of the South Slave Métis.

Métis knowledge of the waterways of the region and development of its transportation routes and methods have a solid foundation in Canada's history. We were famous long-distance canoemen, who showed traders new and shorter routes to fur country. After 1826, we were York boatmen and captains of brigades. And from 1833 when steamboats came to the region, we were boat-builders, woodcutters, trackers, deckhands, and pilots like the legendary Johnny Berens.

Some of our ancestors fought in the battles for Métis rights to protect their traditional land on the Prairies. Most of the indigenous Métis of the South Slave were not part of the Red River Métis resistance, but regarded it as important and kept in touch with events. Martyred Métis statesman Louis Riel is said to be our relative through the Bouchers, a Chipewyan family of Ile a La Cross, Saskatchewan.

Many times, our Dene and Cree relatives have honoured our people by selecting them as spiritual, trade, war or talking chiefs. In 1899 at Fort Chipewyan, influential Métis trader Pierre Mercredi interpreted the Chipewyans' conditions for accepting Treaty 8. In 1900 at Fort Resolution, Michel Mandeville was the interpreter. There, the Chipewyans put forward another respected Métis leader, Pierre Beaulieu, to be their chief. The Treaty Commissioner refused to allow this, because he was Métis and because he refused to accept extinguishment as a condition of the Treaty.

Pierre Mercredi interpreted again in the 1920 Treaty boycott in Fort Resolution, and is credited with using his good offices to help resolve the crisis. This action was typical of the role the Métis played throughout our history as intermediaries and diplomats between the aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state. Two Métis men, Napolean Lafferty and Patrice Mercredi, became the only native Northerners to be ordained as priests in the Mackenzie Athabasca district.

Other Métis helped Canada establish its presence in our territory by working to carry the mail hundreds of miles by dog team and as buffalo rangers and special constables enforcing the law in Wood Buffalo National Park and as far east as the Thelon River Valley in the barrenlands. Many of us fought for Canada in the two world wars and the Korean War, including members of the Loutit, Heron, Sanderson, Mercredi and Evans families. Most recently, South Slave Métis have been Members of the Canadian forces in the Gulf War and Bosnia and have served as well in peacetime.

We are direct descendents of those people who signed Treaty 8 at Fort Chipewyan's Smith Landing at Fort Resolution. However, we have never been apart of the benefits of Treaty 8 or recognized as a First Nations people.

We have suffered many of the same rounds as our First Nation relatives, including attempts by the Government of Canada to take over our lands and resources, to govern our people without consultation or consent and to eradicate our languages and way of life. Métis suffered as much for government neglect as interference. Our rights and very existence as an aboriginal people were never acknowledged.

We hold the federal government to account for creating inequity in our communities where none existed before. When status Indians were permitted by regulation to continue harvesting in Wood Buffalo National Park, we were not. When status Indians and Inuit had their medical treatment paid for, we did not. We have supported institutions like the church, the education system and by taking wage employment, but we found ourselves subject to racism and discrimination often enshrined in government policy. As a result, many of our people were forced to live in hardship. Even now, Métis post-secondary students must either pay taxes on their education grants or accept a loan, while status Indian students receive non-taxable grants.

Our treatment by Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories in the last 100 years since the signing of Treaty 8 would have broken a weaker people. We remain strong and survive to this day because of the strength, unity, love and caring of our families.

We, the indigenous Métis of the South Slave, now reside mainly in the communities of Fort Smith, Hay River, Fort Resolution and Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. We did not cede, surrender or release aboriginal title to the lands and resources throughout our traditional territory. We shall always have aboriginal rights to the use of our lands and resources. We also have the inherent right to govern ourselves in matters that are internal to our communities and traditional territories integral to our distinctive culture and practices, customs and traditions and with respect to our unique relationship to our land, water and resources and essential to our operation as governments.

The federal government has a fiduciary obligation to our people, which is protected by Section 35 of the Constitution of Canada. This is a sacred trust that must be upheld by the crown and we insist that justice prevail.

Our rights are not dependent on and cannot be compromised by the will of other governments. We have the right to exercise them for our benefit at any time. We would prefer to negotiate in good faith with other governments to take our rightful place in Canada. We are willing to work with First Nations and other governments for the purposes of community harmony.

We shall govern ourselves in all areas that affect Métis people with the guided principle that future generations must benefit from our actions. We ourselves will take on the responsibility of healing the wounds of the past that were inflicted upon us by others. Our government is based on our beliefs, values, traditions, history, customs and laws as Métis people. Our Métis constitution will set out our principle structures of government, jurisdictions and authorities.

We place high value on the wisdom of our elders and will continue to use our guidance in all matters affecting Métis people. We will ensure that their knowledge of our identity, of our nationhood and historic place within Canada and of our aboriginal rights is past on to our children for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, this declaration was passed unanimously by resolution of the South Slave Métis Tribal Council Special Assembly, Hay River, Northwest Territories, July 24, 2000. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 9, replies to the opening address. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am proud to rise today to table the South Slave Métis Nation Declaration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Ms. Groenewegen. Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. The honourable Minister responsible for Health, Ms. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, November 3, 2000, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the Members of the 14th Legislative Assembly declare their intent to address the issue of family violence through their personal commitments to help stop family violence through their own action and leadership; and further, support a collective commitment of the 14th Legislative Assembly to work in partnership with communities and their leaders to help lift the silence surrounding family violence and create caring support for people experiencing violence; and furthermore, the 14th Legislative Assembly invites all northern leaders, including leaders of aboriginal governments and organizations, municipal governments, trade unions, boards, agencies and societies to adopt the principle of zero tolerance of family violence in spirit and in practice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 14, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, November 3, 2000, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Tabled Document 32-14(3), Report of the Chief Electoral Officer titled "Modernizing our Electoral System" be referred to the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures; and further, the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures report its findings with recommendations to the Legislative Assembly no later than the fall Session of 2001. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 14, notices of motion. Item 15, notices of motions for the first reading of bills. Item 16, motions. Item 17, first reading of bills. Item 18, second reading of bills. Item 19, consideration in committee of the whole of bills and other matters. Item 20, report of committee of the whole. Item 21, third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Thursday, November 2, 2000 at 1:30 p.m.

-- ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 3:30 p.m.