Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Municipal and Community Affairs has a key role to play in self-government talks in the area of land administration. Once the land claims and self-government talks are finished, in some instances there are municipal lands. There is land administration that is required. There is assessment. Our department does the assessment. There is the expertise there to have the ability to assess the land there. There is the municipal planning. There is a requirement for that. There is the whole area of capacity building, such as training and development of people who are running the municipal governments.
People living in the communities, we have to make sure all people have access to the basic programs and services that are there now, and they are essential. There is a need for this municipal government to be involved, to play this kind of a role here at the negotiating table, and they have.
The Member is talking about us being a threat at the table and so on, but my understanding of what has been going on, for example, in the Beaufort Delta self-government talks, there is an approach that is supported by all parties, that the whole way municipal government is provided in those communities is going to be different from what exists today. There will be a need to revise our legislation. There is going to be a need to do a lot of changes to a number of different legislations that we have to try to accommodate whatever is going to be coming out of the negotiations.
I think there is a need to be involved. Not to enforce, protect or control what happens at the table, but to provide the factual information as to what exists there today. If there are changes that are going to be made as to how municipal governments are going to be done, then we have that information there. There is a need for Municipal and Community Affairs to play a role at these tables. Thank you.