Thank you, Madam Chair. I support the bill because I think the majority of the people of the Northwest Territories are of Indigenous. I just -- I want to talk about a couple things.
The IGC is with three governments. Okay, I mean, with the federal and territorial government and the government that signs on. And it's not necessarily that -- I want to make this very clear because I think clarity is very important.
When you sign on, that means you have a say in land and resources now that we're actually doing some of the work with -- especially with the process convention. You have to realize the different things that have to happen when -- and it's only happening now in this Assembly. It never happened before. Even though they signed on and a lot of times there was -- there wasn't -- the dialogue was not there. And because a couple of groups are not signed on doesn't mean that they didn't have the opportunity to sign on. They chose not to sign on because they're in negotiation of their land claim, and they want to make sure the lands are available of what they wanted in the claim before -- and they still have an opportunity to do just that. The door is always open.
Because I was with -- I sat with the Akaitcho territory for many years. And that was their argument when I'd ask them why they don't do this. And the same with -- and I'm sure that's the same with the Deh Cho. You know, there are reasons why people do certain things or why groups do certain things. I was in leadership and I sat with all these chiefs across the territories.
I think this bill is extremely important in the time of reconciliation and moving forward. There will be flaws. There will be challenges. There's always flaws and challenges. There's loopholes. There's always everything that will come with it. But we have to be able to move forward and work to make it better.
And if we work together as a group, as we're supposed to in consensus government, that's what's supposed to happen. Many times I don't agree with a letter that comes across the desk. I immediately run down the hall. I don't like this word. What does that mean? How is that going to affect my community? I mean, I do it all the time. People have got to be able to have dialogue, a lot of dialogue sometimes. Dialogue with who is putting it out or which department. And sometimes we don't always use that tool. And there are going to be flaws. There are some flaws. And even when the hearing was in Fort Smith, there were people -- a couple of chiefs were there and the Metis and some of these people are part of the drafters of this -- you know, had input into this. And I'd like to say that it's a start. Sure, there's going to be challenges but we have to work through them.
And, you know, many times it's easy to criticize, it's easy to blame someone else for other people's mistakes but taking onus for your mistakes and saying you made a mistake is very important. And I think that, you know, I have a lot of friends that are within the territories, especially in leadership, and people always, you know, are easy to criticize. As soon as one of them makes a mistake, they're easy to criticize. But you can't do that. You've got to see the reason why this happened. And, you know, this bill -- I think Bill 85 is extremely important to the Northwest Territories, to all people in the Northwest Territories, including the non-Indigenous population because many of them understand why we have to have this bill. It's a really -- it's not posing anything on anyone. It's a collaboration of ideas to make things better. And that's what the UNDRIP bill is all about. I don't have any questions but just for clarity. Thank you, Madam Chair.