Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I addressed that question yesterday. I was there for the initialling. Cabinet had supported our negotiators to be present to initial that agreement. The federal government also went ahead with the initialling. I was asked at the last minute if I wanted to be involved in it by the federal negotiator, to witness his initialling. Discussing it with the Minister, Mr. Antoine, we indicated that no, it would not be the thing to do to involve myself in it since the Minister was not involved in any of the ceremony itself.
I passed that on, I thought, to the federal negotiator, but he apparently did not indicate that. At the signing ceremony, which was completely packed with all the Tlicho beneficiaries as well as visitors, we were seated there and when the federal negotiator was going to initial, he asked me to come up publicly to do him the honour of witnessing his initials. Rather than create a scene, as I said yesterday, I decided to indicate that our government was in support of the initialling and that I had no difficulties in being a witness. It was not something I asked to do, but it was done at the last minute.
I did not want to indicate to the Tlicho people, the negotiators or their leaders that this government was in any way indicating lack of support for the initialling because Cabinet had made that decision. This was the issue at the time. Minister Antoine and myself had both met with the Akaitcho leaders and had indicated that we believed their concerns and their issues must be addressed. We expect that the parties, with the assistance of the federal government, will see some process initiated. I think they are meeting today as we speak. We expect that these issues will be addressed appropriately by the parties concerned. Thank you.
