Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess the simple answer to that question is we worked with the aboriginal governments, the Inuvialuit, the Gwich'in and the Sahtu Dene-Metis. They have land claims and in one particular case, we have been working with the Inuvialuit Game Council. There was a difference of approach and it subsequently slowed down our process. As I indicated earlier in this House, we have come to an agreement and things are moving along fairly quickly. Unfortunately, there won't be enough work done to have legislation in place by June. We intend to have a tabled document and the intention is that the tabled legislation would be a draft that would include all the different components of legislation and the intention is to table it so it's public and everybody in the North will see it. We want to do it right and that's the process we have identified and it looks like with all our working partners, the aboriginal governments, this seems to be acceptable. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are doing the work right now, but the question is to go back to an era before becoming familiar with this file. However, my understanding is that the work seriously started in the life of this government. Prior to that, there was no real political will. There were lots of disagreements out there with the aboriginal governments and those who haven't settled their claims have to be considered as well. In the life of this government, we seriously undertook to try to have legislation passed in the life of this government. My recollection of my involvement has been that. Roughly, the Gwich'in agreement came into place in 1992 and the Sahtu was in 1994. So we are a little bit behind schedule, but it's legislation that needs to be done right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that the amount of consultation that we have undertaken in this process to date -- we've had three rounds of consultation and we are currently engaged with the Inuvialuit, Sahtu and the Gwich'in with legal counsel giving direction and drafting the legislation. That's how involved we are at this table. Usually with other legislation, we do it ourselves. However, with this one, the aboriginal governments want to be more involved, so that is part of the reason for the slow process. With the amount of consultation we have done to date with the Aboriginal Working Group that we set up, they covered all the regions and went to all the communities. I would like to say we've done a thorough consultation on all the areas in all the communities including areas that aren't settled. Having said that, I think we have done as much consultation as we could. We are hoping this will be enough so that once we table this draft legislation towards the end of the life of this government, that in the new government all the work will be there. It's a matter of consultation and approval. Hopefully, it will be enough to satisfy the areas that have settled land claims. Thank you.

We looked at the legislative proposal that we put in earlier on to initiate this process. However, we thought that it would be better to keep the legislation whole, together, and we've been moving in that direction. I think there was a discussion of that nature earlier on and it was decided not to go that route but to have it all comprehensive. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, the Honourable Jim Antoine. In my Member's statement yesterday, I mentioned that within the next month, the federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs will make a decision as to what type of environmental review, either a part 5 or part 6, the Bathurst road and port will undergo. What has the Minister and his department done in reaction to this study that is happening? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier on when this issue came up, I wrote a letter to Minister Nault indicating that the nature of the proposal is going to have an effect on us here in the NWT. It's going to have an impact, therefore, we took the position of going after a section 6, which is a comprehensive environmental assessment looking at the socio-economic impacts that the project is going to have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if the government is committed to doing an economic analysis of this project because it has such a great implication on the whole region of the Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our department has been looking at the implications of such a proposal from the very first time it was announced that this initiative was being pursued. Of course, it's going to have an impact on us in a lot of different ways. In fact, we also, in the NWT, have been talking for a number of years about a transportation corridor into that part of the country. That's been a scenario that's been around. Surely this type of initiative would have an impact. So, yes, we are looking at this proposal to try to look at the economic impact it's going to have on us.