Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you all know, the negotiations have been going on for some years now. We have some on the verge of starting, in the case of the Akaitcho in the Deh Cho. We, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, are involved at these different tables.
Once everything has been negotiated by all sides, we would like to have these different agreements implemented successfully. Saying that, for an agreement to be implemented successfully, it should clearly spell out the jurisdictions of the First Nation governments. There should be enough information or detail on the extent of powers and jurisdiction, so it will be very clear what powers the First Nations governments have, through the creation of the agreement.
The agreement should also spell out what kind of working relationship should exist between the First Nation government and other governments and the Government of the Northwest Territories. It should spell out this relationship. We are talking about harmonization of the different laws that are there. The delivery of programs and services which we currently provide has to be spelled out as well. We should know how much the new government will cost in order to operate effectively, which is key. In order to run governments, you need the money to do it. This is a very important point, what the cost factor would be to operate effectively. We should also know where this money is going to come from. That is very important as well. We want to ensure there are practical details on how the new government will be established. That has to be very clear.
The practical details on how these governments will be established must be very clear. The changeover, once the implementation begins, the transition to this new government is structured to be as smooth as possible.
In the meantime, we want to keep our level of programs and services we currently have, so there is no disruption to these programs and services during the implementation phases. These are some of the criteria. These are common-sense criteria we use to determine whether a self-government agreement can be implemented successfully. Mahsi.