Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about land claims, an issue that is of great importance in the Dogrib region. As all Members know, the Dogrib land claim and self-government negotiations have been going on for around ten years. In September, an agreement-in-principle was initialed between the Dogrib leadership, the territorial government and the federal government.
The initialling of this long-awaited agreement was an important step in concluding the negotiations. There are still a lot of details to be worked out, and maybe even years of negotiations ahead before this land claim and self-government agreement becomes a reality.
From an elected official's viewpoint, land claims have been part of the government's agenda longer than many of us have been in this office. When we became Members of the 14th Assembly we inherited land claims issues. We knew that some territorial land claims had been settled, and some were in the works.
To address the issue of land claims and to create a framework for what to work on during our term, we created a document called, Towards a Better Tomorrow. This document sets our goals for the life of the Assembly. One of these goals is to foster mutually respectful and cooperative partnerships with aboriginal governments.
As a government, we decided that one of the ways to meet this goal would be to support the negotiation and implementation of claims and self-government agreements. This is part of our agreed upon mandate for the life of this Assembly. As such, I would like to assure my constituents, some of whom are here, that the land claims process will be honoured for the life of this Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, last week I met with the Dogrib chiefs. In our discussion, they asked me not to do anything that would hurt the Dogrib people or the Dogrib claim. I would like to assure the chiefs and my constituents that as the MLA for the North Slave region, I support the Dogrib negotiations. When issues arise, I do my best to ensure that I am acting in the best interests of my region.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you and I will have questions for the Premier on this issue.
-- Applause