Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This parliamentary liaison position would be somewhat outside the Intergovernmental Forum and the Aboriginal Summit. It should be noted that not all the aboriginal governments in the NWT opt to participate in the IGF or be a member of the Aboriginal Summit. By providing this assistance to the Dene Nation, it would provide an opportunity for the treaty people and other Dene who are not participating in the IGF process to provide input. In talking with the Dene Nation, that is their role. Again, the Dene Nation is not like an aboriginal government. I guess the loose definition of an aboriginal government is one that would have a land base or a negotiated claim of some sort. They have a land base and a future source of their own revenue to run their own institutions.
In this case, it is an organization that is there that will want to work with us as in government and with this Legislative Assembly to have an opportunity to review the different legislation that has developed here, and work in conjunction through the Dene Nation to the different chiefs and the different aboriginal governments out there.
Similarly, there is the Aboriginal Summit. I would like to say that everybody is very busy there. They have accomplished a great deal. They have many challenges as they work together in a collective, even though there is a lot of political uncertainty. There is a lack of resources, heavy workloads, different positions and competing priorities. In that whole area, the summit pulled together and a request was to have some source of funding from this government to the Dene Nation on behalf of the chiefs in trying to accommodate that request.
In response to similar funding from the other aboriginal groups, the Metis or the Inuvialuit, the only request we have to date was with the Dene Nation and none from the other. We are providing funding for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and to the Intergovernmental Forum in related activities through a block-funding arrangement that has been proposed by the Aboriginal Summit.
As well, we are providing funding to the IRC and the Gwich'in Tribal Council through the Beaufort-Delta Political Accord. They are receiving a similar type of funding through these kinds of agreements.
In respect to the Metis, there is actually no longer a territorial Metis organization. As a government, we are proposing to provide funding to both the South Slave Metis Tribal Council and the North Slave Metis Alliance to participate in the Intergovernmental Forum through the related activities, through the block-funding arrangement, and that has been proposed by the Aboriginal Summit. As a government, we also provide assistance for core funding to the Metis locals. There are sources of funding for both of these organizations.
I must tell you that in talking to the national chief, Bill Erasmus, on a couple of occasions in regard to his request to list sources of funding, the Dene Nation does not have any core funding from the federal government nor from our territorial government. He is operating on whatever little pockets of dollars he can get. I just wanted to say that they do not have any core funding at all from any other source. Thank you.