Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Premier. As many of my colleagues have discussed already, it is in the area of negotiations for resource and finance arrangements here in the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Harvie Andre is the latest federal emissary to the NWT from Ottawa to negotiate these deals. I want to express my hope that he will be able to advance this issue. Mr. Speaker, this Assembly, chiefs and mayors have for years now been very clearly on the record with the federal and provincial governments that this is our goal. Resources and wealth are flying out of the NWT at a rate of about three-quarters of a million dollars a day, Mr. Speaker.

I want to ask now about the critical area, which the Premier has already acknowledged has been a difficulty in the past, and that is the mandate of the federal negotiator. Mr. Speaker, does Mr. Andre have the full authority of the federal government to negotiate the finance deal with us and with aboriginal governments? Thank you.