Thank you, Chair.
I just want to update the committee. We've been working at this most of yesterday and all day today to try to get to a compromise on clause 8 that we think would meet the needs of all those who have an interest here.
We've been working with some of the partners here in the room. I've been working with Ms. Idlout. I hope she's going to make it. We've actually gone back and forth with—I don't want to butcher anybody's title—the legislative counsel, I believe, on a draft. Is that the right title? They've sent us a couple of drafts, which I have not sent to the clerk yet because we've been looking for the one we think would be accepted by everybody.
We did have another option sent to us by one of the partners here, literally in the middle of question period today. We've sent that one off to the legislative counsel as well to see if we can find a compromise that meets the needs of everybody to bring clarity.
The issue we've been talking about is the clarity.... We've heard so many concerns over the course of the eight weeks from people who felt they were being drawn into something that wasn't by their choice. We're just trying to make sure they are respected and that, at the same time, the Métis governments we're trying to give recognition to in this legislation are respected and honoured in the context of what they are trying to accomplish. That's why we've had conversations with them as part of the drafting of all these things.
As far as a way to proceed goes, unfortunately I've hit a wall in the context of not having the amendment that I think might be the compromise. I know that Ms. Idlout and her team are looking at it. Our team is looking at it, and we've sent it off to the legislative counsel to do the drafting of the proposed amendment. I'm trying to figure out the way forward.
In all fairness to everybody, we've gone back and forth on this all day. It's not like we have not tried. We started with an option this morning. We've had a couple of other ones that have gone back and forth throughout the day, and the compromise is one that was developed after two o'clock this afternoon. It's not like we haven't been trying to find the spot we talked about this morning in saying that we hoped we could get there by 3:30 today.
I'm honestly trying to find the path forward here that solves that. I don't have the proposed amendment in my hand from the legislative counsel that I can offer to the table at this point. I guess I would defer to other comments on this, just to see what our way forward is based on being at this point in our journey.
Maybe other people want to speak to that. That's just an update on the work we tried to do today to get to a compromise and to get to a place that we believe satisfies the needs and concerns of all those we've heard from over the last several weeks.