Thank you to the member from the NWT for that question.
It's true that there are issues with availability of federal negotiators or even territorial negotiators. We've observed, for example, speaking about the GNWT, that there's been quite a bit of churn within their system. Negotiators go off the file. These are tremendously complex files, as the member knows. These agreements are 30 to 40 full chapters. The implementation agreements run past 400 pages. These are incredibly complex treaties that have been negotiated. For a new negotiator to come on to the file and come up to speed takes a long time. Over the many years of our process, we have seen the challenges when new negotiators come on to the file.
Secondly, to the other point the member made, they don't have the number of days to really make progress at a table. In our view, in one and a half days you're really just getting started. Ideally, given the distances, most negotiations should have three good days of actual negotiations. They shouldn't start with half a day and then have a day in the middle. It doesn't create the winning conditions that you need to close these deals.
While we appreciate the hard work that's been done [Technical difficulty—Editor] to bring these treaties to the finish line, we really think it would be beneficial if there were more dedication by governments to ensure that they have the resources—the human resources and the time resources—to fully engage at these tables to deal with these fundamental issues.
Thanks again for the question.