Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member’s statement earlier, leading up to these questions, made a number of comments about secret negotiations and so on. I will say for the record that there were no secret negotiations. All bilateral discussions that may have happened between the GNWT and the federal government, specifically because there are areas that we clearly are for or would be, those issues and discussions were shared at the main table with all of the partners that were at the table.
As for signing this agreement, there are many things to be negotiated as we go forward. One of those is the escalation of the dollars identified for doing the work that would be required of us as the Government of the Northwest Territories.
The negotiations up to establishing the numbers for the initial transfer were very intense, as we clearly
stated that we felt, under the existing authorities, we need to do a job that would require more resources than is being expended now. We have that agreement. In fact, that is one of the reasons why we would say that we are in agreement with signing this.
Other areas that are of concern to many of the Aboriginal groups, as well, are around waste sites and monitoring and management. There is a chapter 8 that goes through quite a number of issues that look at addressing what we would do as we enter into negotiations. I think this is another reason why having the Aboriginal groups and governments come back to the table to help influence the discussions is probably one of the biggest things, since we hold our environment in such high regard in the North. That would be one of those that would draw us back to the table, I would say. Thank you.