Again, Mr. Chair, I have to disagree with that notion. I believe that this is a land grab by the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Inuvialuit and the Metis for lands throughout the Northwest Territories on the backs of Dene people and Dene treaties and land claim agreements that clearly stipulate that there are settlement regions in the Northwest Territories. There are regions in the Northwest Territories which are clearly defined in regards to maps, Treaty 8, Treaty 11, which have our historical treaties. But yet, as a government, we seem to be railroading ourselves into a system of taking over a land grab at the expense of Dene people.
I totally disagree with the way this process is going and I think as a government we have an obligation to ensure that we have a workable situation that we get the parties to the table and not go full speed ahead with two groups at the table, which is a minority interest and who do not have anything at stake in regard to those lands in the Gwich’in Settlement Region, the Sahtu Settlement Region, the Tlicho region, the Dehcho or the Akaitcho. I believe that is the issue that we’re missing here, and I see that the majority of the money is going to go to two groups who have everything to gain and nothing to lose, and the Dene people have everything to lose and nothing to gain. To me that is the issue here.
I’d like to know how you can spend $2.8 million and not allow a system to resolve this outstanding roadblock that we’re at by having those dollars invested to getting the parties to the table and getting those issues on the table. If that means putting the devolution agreement aside, we’ll find in those areas that we basically can agree to disagree and work with the federal government to say, look, the agreement is not acceptable to the majority of people in the Northwest Territories, especially the Dene people up and down the valley. You basically find a way to work around that.
What I’m hearing from you is that let’s run a process where we speed up the devolution process. Let’s try to get everything done within the year and forget the people that don’t want to sign on. Whatever agreement we have, well, you can pick up the scraps or crumbs or whatever is left over. We’ll basically allow those groups who don’t
have a stake in the Mackenzie Valley to benefit from royalties and resources throughout the Mackenzie Valley, which they technically don’t have an interest or don’t have a legal leg to stand on when it comes to the distribution of those royalties through the Dene-Metis land claim.
I’d like to clarify if you would re-profile these dollars and establish a fair distribution to allow for all Aboriginal groups in the Northwest Territories to have the means and resources to be full, active members, regardless if it’s on a side table or a table, to find a workable solution to this bypass.