Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that if we could go to the federal government and say these are our resources, we would not have to ask them for money. If they are our resources, we would spend the benefits from these resources as we see fit.
At the present time, the federal government is not letting go of the resources and of course they are the ones enjoying the benefits, the royalties and the taxes. Yes, we have tried the argument as such. However, the federal government at this point in time is tying resource sharing with the aboriginals along with us into the same discussion, if you like. In some way, I suppose you could say they are holding up the transfer of resources in that manner.
The fact of the matter is we would be happy to go to the government and say, "These are our resources and therefore just give us the money to build the roads and whatever", but we would already have that money if we had the resources. We would be in the same situation as the Yukon Government, where they have control over their resources so therefore they get to spend the royalties and taxes. We do not have that option right now, but that is what we are working on through the transfer of resources to this government.