Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court of Canada came out with the ruling in regard to a reference on the Firearms Act. We intervened as the Government of the Northwest Territories in this court action by the province of Alberta.
The Supreme Court dismissed the province of Alberta's application to have the federal firearms declared unconstitutional. The court case did not deal with treaty or aboriginal rights at all and it did not deal with the unique northern or rural conditions of Canadians. So there is a door that is open there for different groups and organizations to intervene on those basis.
I heard through the media this morning that the NTI from Nunavut is taking a challenge based on Inuit aboriginal rights based on their land claims agreement.
So this is what we know. We as a government have been reviewing it and we have not made any decisions as Cabinet or as a government yet. Hopefully, we will do it very soon. We have some decision and option papers that we will be looking at very soon.
At this point in time, we are not participating in the administration of the Firearms Act in the Northwest Territories. There is a chief firearms officer who is an employee of the federal Department of Justice that is administering the licensing and the registration provisions of this Act. So this is where it is at right now with the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.