Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, regarding his remarks about the Dogrib chief negotiator and the council's statement in the press. I have some real concerns about the statement he released.
It basically says the government of the Northwest Territories and Cabinet are committed to negotiate self-government agreements that can be successfully implemented. We provide negotiation mandates to our negotiators. If issues rising at the table go beyond the mandate, they return to Cabinet for further direction.
The way I interpret that, after being at the negotiation table on the aboriginal side, is negotiation is a two-way street. What you want to do is improve the lives and conditions of the people you are negotiating for, especially First Nations people. The intent of self-government negotiations is that it works both ways. At the end of the day, you sit down and try to come up with something you both can agree to that reflects the First Nation ambitions and the government's ambition of devolving powers to the First Nations.
I would like to ask the Minister how much room there is to negotiate if the mandates given to these negotiators is so rigid that they cannot move on anything and have to keep coming back to Cabinet.
