Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to Mr. Kaludjak and Mr. McKay, a fellow British Columbian, and also somebody from Nunavut.
I was in Nunavut probably in 1998 with the fisheries committee. We were in Iqaluit and in Pond Inlet. We met with some people from your government and we were told about some specific treaty implementation issues at that time, which we tried to address through the committee. So we do know there have been issues for a long time.
I would like to make reference to your comment early on where you talked about practical solutions. I think that's where we want to go.
The Senate has been very good at tackling these kinds of issues. The Senate can be credited with the actions we've taken as a government on moving forward on the specific claims, and all evidence is that this is moving in a very positive direction. As a government, we also, I believe, have done a lot for the north and for Nunavut and we would like to continue to do that.
I would beg to differ with Monsieur Lemay, who suggested that government should have no role to play here. We have to remember that Mr. Lemay wishes there was no federal government
Kevin McKay, you talked about being told last week that there was no increase. You were told there was no increase in the fiscal arrangement, the financing arrangement. That is incorrect information. I don't know where that is coming from, but we're certainly working in a very different direction. We're close to having the authority. We know the tardiness, the lateness of the Nisga'a and Yukon financing renewals. We want to get on with fixing that. If we can't demonstrate with your treaty and with the Yukon treaty, the comprehensive agreements, that we can move forward and address your issues, then there's much less incentive for others to move into treaty arrangements. We're still moving ahead with treaty arrangements with other groups. We've had Tsawwassen and Maa-nulth this year.
So I want to assure you that we are putting those authorities in place and we'll get on with tackling that. There are identified problems. You have identified problems with the treaties. This does not mean it's an international embarrassment. This means you have identified problems. We're going to try to do our very best to resolve those problems, and I would like to suggest that where we are today is a lot further ahead than where we were before you signed your agreements.
I don't know if I have a question out of all that, other than to ask if you have any comments about what I've just said.
Thank you. I direct that to both of you.