Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just keep my comments short. I guess the overall, I've been around for a while here in Aboriginal politics. And, you know, when we keep thinking about the early days of the Northern Accord in 1989, was more or less again another way of transferring a lot of these authorities from Ottawa to the GNWT.
And in 2004, they created the Aboriginal Summit and the Aboriginal Summit, again, was made of all these Aboriginal leaders in the Northwest Territories and trying to work on an arrangement with GNWT. And my colleague, Ron Bonnetrouge here from the Deh Cho, had talked about devolution 2014. And that was the beginning of the transfer of a lot of the responsibilities from Ottawa, even on leased land. At one time the Government of Canada used to provide those services for about $200 a year on leased lands and somehow it got transferred to the territorial government and the leases went up to, I don't know, $1,600, and if you're an elder it goes down to $800 and for those services. And it's really frustrating for the elders in my community. But at the end of the day, you know, when you really think about it, it's the GNWT is actually in the process of moving towards a provincial-like type of government or overall. So they have greater control on the lands and resources here in the Northwest Territories.
So when the devolution gave way, that's exactly what happened. But going forward, I'm just wondering, like, there's going to be a set of check boxes with the GNWT as to how we can get to that where we are to the point where we're an actual province of Canada, you know. And right now as it is, there's still hurdles in the way though, that we need to talk about, and I keep mentioning it over and over again, is that we have section 35 constitutional rights. We got claims. We got self-government agreements. Sooner or later, this government here is going to have to deal with that. And it may have to be done through a constitution that be created between the GNWT and Indigenous governments. And that needs to be talked about. So we just want to make sure that, you know, this bill that's going forward doesn't impede -- and we already know it doesn't impede on those constitutional rights. But overall, you know, I keep thinking about this and when I hear the discussion around the table, you know, at the end of the day, you it's -- this government here, the ultimate goal and mandate of this government is going to be become a province.
And when that happens, then the authority's going to be here. But we need to figure how we're going to work together and co-exist and what kind of relationship we're going to have. So it's more or less a comment because, as a former leader, I mean, I've been around -- I've been to all these meetings as a former leader. And I seen it. So anyway it's just going to be -- Madam Chair, it's just a comment. But the thing is that I guess overall this bill, there's some issues there that we could take a look at but we'll get it sorted out. Thank you.