Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate all of the concerns and comments from Members opposite. There were some concerns that were raised with the bill and the way it was brought forward. We have had a lot of negative comments, and we take those as well as any positive comments that we can get.

We reached out to a lot of our partners yesterday and had some conversations with them. They shared some concerns. Four of them said that they will take part in the standing committee process, recognizing the standing committee's workload. It has been that way for the four Assemblies that I have been a part of. We do have a bit of work in the last little bit. Unfortunately, at the beginning of this Assembly, we should have been doing a lot more work. We spent a lot of time on other things, and that took up a lot of time and energy that could have been put into some legislative initiatives.

However, I recognize the concerns of committee. One of the reasons that I think we need to bring this on the road is because, if we bring on the road a completed product without input from the public -- and that is one thing that we hear a lot in here: "The public has to have input; the public has to have input." I agree with you, 100 percent, but if we make the decision in here for the public without giving them an opportunity to have input in the final product, then we are going against what we chose.

Somebody made the comment that the Aboriginal governments are just stakeholders in all of this. Maybe that is your feeling and that is your opinion, but in your opinion, Aboriginal governments are our full partners, and they will be, going forward. They know that, and we know that. Members have taken part in a lot of the bilateral discussions that we have had with Aboriginal governments. We respect the input that they put into it.

There was one comment that the spirit and intent is to protect the forest. I agree wholeheartedly. That is the spirit and intent of this particular piece of legislation.

There were a lot of suggestions from one particular Member about a lot of things that could be improved in this bill, and I agree with that as well. That is what we need to hear. The Member tells us what he thinks needs to be in the bill? Fine, we will listen to that, but then we need to listen to what the public has to say, because they may have some other ideas that they want to work into the bill.

When we get through the public consultation and the feedback from public, we will make a determination there whether this is going to proceed or not or be punted to the next Assembly. I believe that we have an obligation to try and do as much of the work as we can now, and I am a big believer in getting things right. However, I can say that, if we had come up with a finished product between ourselves, the Aboriginal governments, and committee, I would have been criticized for not bringing this to the public and seeking their input. I am not going to risk that; we will seek their input, and then we will come back to this Assembly. We will make a determination at that time about the feedback that we got, how we can incorporate into the bill, how we can improve the bill, and then we will move on from there, Mr. Speaker.

Everything that we do respects the land claims process, and everything that we do respects our partnership with the Aboriginal governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that a request for a recorded vote was asked for. Thank you.