Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There again, we are going back to either saying we have to go out and consult, or we have to go out to another group. These are obligations that are spelled out in black and white, an agreement that clearly states the Government of the NWT. That is where I have a real problem, is that the government has to live up to its obligations.
We are trying to work with First Nation groups on the Northern Accord. We are trying to negotiate self-government. We are involved in land claims negotiations, but it is just like the treaties. The treaties that people signed in Treaty 8 and in 1921, Treaty 11, there was understanding that people did not give up the land. They were told that we are going to take care of your housing, we will take care of your education, we will take care of this and that and the other thing. At the end of the day, a lot of people lost their homes, lost their land, their cultural abilities. When it comes back to the government, they say, "Well, that was our understanding."
This is a modern treaty to spell out what obligations governments have to First Nations people, and yet we are stepping back from the obligations made, and signed as a party to these agreements, where they had people negotiating these agreements. We are still sitting here today, talking about the Gwich'in agreement that was signed in 1991. That is almost over nine years ago. How much more time does it take? It took the Inuvialuit ten years before they could sort of get an idea of the implementation of their agreement, because the government was not living up to their agreement. That is why there had to be these negotiations. That is why you see two-point-something-million dollars in that section, because there are obligations. The government never obligated the resources to carry them out. Now they have, because they had to negotiate an implementation agreement with the Inuvialuit.
The same thing applies to the aboriginal organizations that have agreements because of the experiences in the past with the Inuvialuit and other groups that signed agreements back in the 1980s. Now the modern treaties that are being signed, the implementation agreements have to be attached to them.
This thing about a tripartite committee, it is just like the apartheid group in South Africa, where one group tells you what is good for you, and they get all the wealth and benefits, but the people that really should receive these benefits are left out in the cold because somebody's interpretation is different than what it was.
Hopefully, this government will live up to its obligations when it comes time for implementation. I would like to ask the Minister again, when will they live up the obligations under these agreements, where it says the government shall take such measures to consult and ensure that they are carrying out their responsibilities?