Mr. Chairman, the provisions of the claim itself, there are spaces and spots in it, as the Member for Mackenzie Delta has highlighted, that require action on government, not necessarily legislative action but whether it is, for example, he used 10.1.5 about the Government of the Northwest Territories shall consult with the Gwich’in Tribal Council on developing modifications to preferential contracting policies, procedures and approaches. We, for example, on the preferential treatment, have negotiated contracts. When we were looking at making any changes, we set that out for their input as to the potential changes we are looking at. We did it to every organization. So we have done that. On 10.1.6, for example, when it talks about the Government of the Northwest Territories intends, when we intend to carry out activities on settlement lands, and that is important on settlement lands, which give rise to employment or other economic opportunities. When the Government of the Northwest Territories elects to enter into contracts with respect to those activities without going to public tender, that is a critical area. Participants shall be given first opportunity to negotiate such contracts. We follow that practice.

The problem comes in when we look at the other areas and again when we talk about settlement lands and other self-government bodies or negotiations, that is when we have problems about who gets the first opportunity and the MOUs was a process where we established outside of the claims process to try and come up with a management process that would allow the groups to have opportunity to look at what was happening. For example, the government’s infrastructure plan would be shared with the groups to say, here it is in that region and that settlement area. What areas would you like to see and have interest in and work back and forth with that? The Minister of ITI is the lead on those MOUs. The Gwich’in was the first one signed. The Sahtu recently signed one. There are other negotiations happening right now in those areas to do that.

The section of 10.1.4 about when government carries out public activities in areas that give rise to employment, economic opportunities, the government elects to enter into contracts with respect to those activities. Section B is the Government of the Northwest Territories preferential contracting policies, procedures and approaches intended to maximize regional and northern employment and business opportunities

should be followed respectively by Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Again, when we established preferential treatment, policies and processes, that is when that would apply. There are a number of occasions across the government that we use that provision in trying to access that. I believe, again, the MOU would show good results in that area of bringing more dollars to those organizations when it comes to opportunities for employment and contracting. Thank you.