Mr. Speaker, I have a return to written question asked by Mr. Yakeleya on June 8, 2006, regarding trespassing legislation in land claim areas.

The Inuvialuit Final Agreement, Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement, Sahtu Dene Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement and the Tlicho Agreement, generally speaking, provide aboriginal beneficiaries of those agreements the exclusive right to harvest furbearers and timber on lands granted to the respective aboriginal peoples.

Unfortunately, while these land claim agreements clearly contemplate that non-beneficiaries require permission from land claim organizations to carry out certain activities on privately owned aboriginal lands, enforcement of these provision is, as a practical matter, difficult.

The GNWT has jurisdiction over trespass within the Northwest Territories, however, this government has chosen not to develop territorial legislation with respect to trespass. In a jurisdiction as large and expansive as the NWT, implementing trespass legislation would become a very expensive proposition for the GNWT. Instead, as with many other provinces and territories in Canada, the GNWT chooses to allow the federal government's trespass legislation to be the statutory basis for dealing with issues of trespass within the NWT.

The GNWT does have control and administration over Commissioner's land. Section 5 of the Commissioner's Land Act describes how trespass should be handled in cases where the GNWT is the landowner. However, it should be noted that the GNWT does not have jurisdiction over settlement lands associated with a land claim agreement.

As a result of negotiations, the land claimant groups privately own settlement lands. For example, the settlement lands described in the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement are owned and administered by the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated.

Self-government agreements, currently under negotiation within the Sahtu region, will provide jurisdiction over trespass to the aboriginal self-governments. Should the future self-governments choose to drawdown this jurisdiction, they will then have the ability to develop and enforce their own laws over trespassers on settlement lands.

The intention of land, resource and self-government negotiations is to give aboriginal groups the tools to take control over their future and build a government that can better respond to the unique culture and needs of their people.

Lawmaking power over trespass, for example, can be an effective way to control which individuals can or cannot access settlement lands.

Through the negotiations process, the federal government, the GNWT and aboriginal leaders are taking steps to strengthen northern government. This will shape the future of the NWT in significant ways. This includes ensuring that self-governments within the Sahtu region will have the ability to enforce their own trespass legislation over their settlement lands.