Mr. Speaker, the supreme court came down with a judgment on September 17, 1999. We as the government respect the treaty right and we will live within the spirit of that judgment.
We have to make clear this is a right by law that the courts have recognized, a contract. This is a contract and a treaty. We respect that. The crown should respect the promises that it made whether they were made yesterday or whether they were made 240 years ago. We will ensure that we live with that.
Today I am happy to announce that I will be appointing a federal representative to start the talks immediately on a long term arrangement to deal with this issue.