Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we had actually requested that the city come forward with five years of land needs identified on a map.
We also requested that the Akaitcho people come forward and identify, on a map, areas that they were interested in. Then we tried to look at areas that did not have significant overlap. We tried to look at areas where we could release some lands that would not be too controversial. When we tried to map that out ourselves on an overlay, we decided that five years was too long. We had initially considered a five-year freeze. We realized that that would be too long of a time period to freeze land in this area. Then we had discussions with Aboriginal Affairs to see where things were at in terms of negotiations. Then we came to the conclusion that two years was probably a more realistic time frame for this to be settled.
The amount of land that we transferred, we feel, would be able to accommodate the city for two-and-a-half years. So we did freeze the land in this area for two years. There is still opportunity if there is the ability by the city and the Yellowknives to agree on parcels of land that they would like to see transferred over, the opportunity is still there. However, failing that, we will stick to the two-year time period. Thank you.