Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Devolution discussions have certainly been a major topic of discussion among all aboriginal leaders. Most of the leaders, I must say, Mr. Speaker, are on side, but there are some situations where the grand chiefs, the leaders in the regions are still negotiating their land claim or other aboriginal processes, and they have said slow down devolution until we get our processes out of the way first at the regional level. I continue to promote moving ahead speedily with devolution, but on the condition that we also have a resource revenue sharing arrangement that is parallel with it. We don't want to take on responsibilities without the money that comes with it. We need to have an opportunity to have a fair share.

So that process is ongoing. It was commenced in 2002 in a very aggressive way. I am still optimistic we will continue on track. I hope we have an agreement-in-principle before the end of 2004, but in the meantime I am also preparing to move ahead on an interim resource revenue sharing process because I am not 100 percent confident that we're moving fast enough on devolution. In case it starts to fall off the tracks or get slowed down, I want to have the interim process in place, because once we sign an AIP there might be a long time before we ever can agree on a final agreement.

But, Mr. Speaker, yes, there is a process taking place. Negotiations are ongoing. The next negotiating session will happen on October 26th to 28th here in Yellowknife. So that one is moving, but I must say, Mr. Speaker, not as fast as I would like to see it moving. So in the interim, I am also talking with the federal Ministers and the Prime Minister on an interim arrangement that would kick in giving us some resource revenues as early as after signing an AIP. I believe most aboriginal leaders have thought about it and are generally on side with the concept. Thank you.