Thank you. I will start off with the Akaitcho First Nations negotiations. As we all know, there was an initial framework agreement in June, and the framework was signed in Deninu Ku'e in July. The signed framework agreement then goes back to the respective parties. In our case, the framework agreement has gone to us and the Cabinet. We are supportive of it, and it also went back to the Akaitcho Territory Assembly, and it was accepted. This mandate has also gone back to the federal counterparts.
My information is that the federal mandate has not been approved. I think they have to develop a mandate to negotiate with the Akaitcho to continue with the formal discussions that are just going to start. There is discussion on interim measures and there is preparation by the Akaitcho leaders to prepare themselves for formal negotiations on their lands and resources and governance. They are doing that through a series of agreeing on a work plan and agreeing...They are dong some workshops and so forth to get themselves ready for it. It is my understanding that there is no real formal negotiations that have started, but they are on the verge of doing that.
The South Slave Metis are negotiating the land resource portion of their agreement. They are aggressively having a series of different negotiation sessions and they are dealing with some of the issues at this time. So they have a plan to continue on negotiations on a regular basis. So things are going fairly well in that instance. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.