Thank you.
I thank all the witnesses for coming. It's great to see many of you again.
My questions are for Ms. Fraser. I'm always delighted to have you at committee.
On numerous occasions in the past you have talked about many problems with the implementation of land claims north of 60. In fact, this summer, when Michael Ignatieff and I toured the north, we heard those in spades again. However, in your speech here, in paragraph 5 you talk about agreements being finalized, including the Tlicho agreement, which was a self-government agreement. You said, “in our view the efforts to settle land claim and self government agreements represent a significant achievement and an important step”.
Yet less than a month ago I got input from the Dene that says once claims have been settled, the claimant groups have great difficulty in implementing their agreements. A case in point is the Tlicho government in the Northwest Territories. Tlicho are having difficulty implementing their agreement.
How do you reconcile your glowing speech with the problems you have seen in the past and what we heard this summer and in this recent letter on the implementation?