Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have several questions. First, I just want to address the opening remarks by the Minister. He has given us an update on several tables, but also excluded several tables, specifically the Akaitcho table and the South Slave Metis Tribal table. Can he give us a verbal update, if he is not going to give us a hard copy update? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister.

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.

Thank you. Mr. Nitah.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to get the opinion of the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs on the federal government's agreement to negotiate lands and possible resources with Denesuline people of northern Saskatchewan for lands north of the 60th parallel. Some view that as a diversion tactic by the federal government on the process that might be taking on in the Akaitcho territory. I just want to know if the Minister has looked at it from that perspective and if he has, what are his thoughts and the Ministry's thoughts on that?

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Denesuline First Nations of northern Saskatchewan, in the communities of Fond du Lac and Black Lake and Hatchet Lake, have apparently taken the federal government to court a while back and through discussions, the federal government agreed to negotiate land resources with them. This allowed them to set aside their court case so they could get into formal negotiations. This came to our attention recently and there was a delegation that travelled here to the Northwest Territories. I met them. I met the leaders of the Athabasca Denesuline here a couple of weeks ago. They also did meet with the Akaitcho First Nation chiefs, I believe, to let them know of their intentions. I did have a series of meetings with the officials in the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, with the delegations, as well as a federal representative that was there.

What happened is Canada has signed an MOU, a negotiations framework, with the Athabasca Denesuline to deal with the Athabasca Denesuline treaty and aboriginal rights in the Northwest Territories. This is something that just came to light very recently. We got wind of it about a month or so ago. So this is something that has been developing between the Denesuline and Canada I guess for some time, but it was just brought to our attention and we are trying to deal with it. It is a new issue that we have to deal with. I do not know if it is a diversion or whatever, but there is an official process that is underway between Canada and the Denesuline. Thank you.

Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is quite interesting the timing of the federal government deciding to allow negotiations north of 60 by groups south of 60. I imagine there is all kinds of questions that will be asked and are being asked. I have a few myself, but it is pretty early in the process and we will cross that bridge when we get to that bridge, I imagine.

The other area that I want to ask the Minister is on the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. That act was enacted by the federal government resulting from the Gwich'in and Sahtu land claims. It took a legal threat by the two claimant groups to enact those acts, which is the main body to review the environmental review processes that denies or accepts project proposals by industry. Those regions and those aboriginal governments that do not have land claims yet do not have a voting seat on there.

I personally feel, and the people I represent feel also, that the people who have signed their land claims and gave up their treaty rights, through the signing of their claims have no right to interfere in other aboriginal peoples and their treaty rights and the treaty rights to their lands when they decide on development on lands outside of their claim area. I am wondering if the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs has ever gotten a legal opinion on the validity of the Gwich'in, the Sahtu people, deciding on what goes on on Deh Cho, Dogrib and Akaitcho lands? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chairman, this is a government-wide issue. The Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act is now the regime that manages lands and waters in the Northwest Territories. Yes, it did derive from commitments made during the Gwich'in and Sahtu claims and it went through. As for the ministry having a specific legal opinion on it, we do not have a specific legal opinion on it. I am sure there is a lot of work done by the government as a whole during the development of the act. So there is probably a lot of work done to try to determine what this act will do and how it is going to impact on the citizens in the North and the different claimants groups that are affected by that. So, no, we do not have a specific legal opinion in the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. Thank you.

Mr. Braden.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is a very interesting area for Metis people. I am sure the decision there will help eventually in trying to determine the rights of the Metis people, their traditional rights to hunt, and so forth. My understanding of the court case which we are still studying and trying to determine what kind of impact it is going to have here on us since it is just a recent decision and we will need a little bit of time to study it, my understanding initially is it was a decision in the Ontario courts, therefore it seemed to be applicable in Ontario, I understand, but it will have implications in other jurisdictions across the country, including ourselves.

Right now, we need to determine what the decision was and how it is going to impact on us. Certainly we will provide that determination to the Members as soon as we get that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do not know at this point in time if it there is going to be an appeal. There is always that possibility of appeal, but we do not have any indication right now of any appeal at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we may be able to get some more information as early as tomorrow in this issue. If not, it would be the first part of next week. As soon as we get more information we will inform people in the House. Thank you.