Thank you.
Thank you, Minister, for being before us today.
Here we are, weeks away from the end of this Parliament. The Mackenzie Valley portion of the bill was foreseen before the election, yet it has taken four years for us to get to this place. I'm just wondering why the delay. We had the draft legislation completed in July 2017, and then it was 16 more months before we saw the legislation here in the House of Commons.
Now, we're rushing it through. We have one day of witnesses and a whole list of witnesses who aren't here: the Akaitcho first nation Salt River, Northwest Territories Métis, the K'atl'odeeche First Nation, the Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce, the Dene Nation, Alternatives North and Ecology North. I think all of these people would have been valuable to hear, yet because we're in such a rush...and we just heard what's going on in the Senate. What are the chances that this will even get through the Senate, with this time element?
When I see this bill, which is two very different pieces of legislation stuck together, with very different people supporting and not supporting it, I wonder why the decision was made to tie them together. I'm guessing that might have been some of the cause of the delay. This is an important piece of legislation that many of us want to see pass. We'd all like to see devolution in the Northwest Territories, as you say, so that the good parts of Bill C-15 are tied up.
I'm wondering if you could comment on that whole time element. I don't know. It boggles my mind.