The framework the Member is talking about I think is one that right now would be a fairly general one, the fact that there will need to be a public government in place. There’s a diversity in the Northwest Territories. There’s a public government. What role it would play, to what level it would be, and maybe this is just too simple of a comparison. But right now the arrangement we have with Ottawa, for example, to the Government of the Northwest Territories is there are some funding lines, agreements in place, and within those agreements there are certain minimum standards that have to be met and we have to deliver on that basis. Will it go down to that level? It definitely will be more complex than that. But we will, as each table becomes more defined about what’s being negotiated and the authorities that are being negotiated to a self-government, change the level of authority we have. We know that directly from the Tlicho Government itself. So that is indeed what is in place right now.
Some of the mandates we have operating with Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations fall back prior to these agreements. We know we have to update them. That will help us set a clear path where we go forward.
As for further development of that framework, I think that’s where, for example in the discussions with the Dene National Chief Mr. Erasmus about the future of the North and trying to begin a dialogue about what it could be, what it could mean with aboriginal leadership in the North. I think that discussion, there’s a recognition that the landscape has changed, that the field is different, and we must now look forward to what could be and what potentially will be in the Northwest Territories. We need to set about that work. Our sense, the Government of the Northwest Territories, is the mandate review is a starting point that will help us define some of that area, what will be the framework, and start building from there.