Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The motion brought before the House today is one of concern of some Members and also some Aboriginal groups throughout the Northwest Territories. The concern, obviously, is the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act was included in Bill C-15 when it was brought into the House of Commons.

I was very lucky to attend the one here in the Northwest Territories at the Explorer Hotel. I listened to all types of individuals, leaders, past leaders, and new and future leaders speak about these bills and these provisions. I listened very carefully to all sides of the story and to the governments talk about how these provisions were in the land claims agreements when those were all signed. Now they are just bringing those out to address this issue.

Also, if you look at the reports that come out on the low grade the GNWT gets on the red tape system to get projects moving forward, which I also agree with. Obviously we did miss out on a big project in the Northwest Territories, the Mackenzie Gas Project.

Those all lead up to something else that is great, our traditional land, pristine waters, environments. I was lucky enough to attend an event, I believe it was last night, where they showed the way people used to live off the land. It was really great to see that and also see the traditions carried on today in this day and age.

The MVRMA also talks about revisiting this in five years. I just want to bring forward that I’ve heard a lot of good things and some of our strong leaders were mentioning why fix something that’s not broken. They wanted to have their voice and concerns moved into this.

There was also some very good points brought up from the legal staff of these Aboriginal groups and Aboriginal leaders that pinpointed sections and

clauses in the act that they didn’t agree with that needed to be addressed and they made sure that committee, at the time, was listening.

The motion itself just encourages something that this government is already doing, and that’s engaging our Aboriginal partners and Aboriginal leaders and continuing to discuss things going forward. I believe the motion is asking that our government continue those discussions and maybe encourage the dialogue to see the importance of these and whether or not amendments need to be made in five years to get this changed.

So I do thank Mr. Bromley and the seconder for bringing this to the table today and addressing the issues. For the fact of everything I heard during the hearing, I will support this to increase the dialogue and discussions and am looking forward to seeing if there is some resolve on this in the next five years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.