Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, stand here to indicate that I will be supporting this bill. It is the next step, Mr. Speaker, in what has really become a proud history legacy of northern Canadians and Canada as a whole that has seen land claim and self-government process events over time. In most of my life here in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker, and some nine or ten years in the Yukon, I have lived through the evolution of the whole notion that aboriginal people deserve to have these things.

It really is a matter of restoring what they had and how they lived and went about making their own decisions before the arrival, of course, of European culture. The acceptance of land claims and self-government is really becoming part of the North's psyche. It is part of our environment, it is part of how we live, how we work with each other and, very much, Mr. Speaker, it is part of the way we are looking forward in planning for the future. We cannot do these things without factoring in the significance of land claims and self-government. That is why we are here as legislators; to see this through and to be the eyes and the ears and the hearts of our constituents and to lead and guide the laws and programs through to completion.

As my colleague, Mr. Delorey, said he looks forward to seeing this through and to the broadest and fullest possible inclusion as our process and our rules have it, that this is given the fullness of time and exposure to all people of the North to have a look at these laws. To see that they are indeed the right thing to do, see that they meet the expectations and merit the respect that we bring to them, Mr. Speaker. I want to say again that I stand in full support of this bill and look forward to the public discourse and the passage of it in due course. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.