Mr. Speaker, now that all the parties have spoken on the bill, if I may I will make a couple of comments as opposed to asking a question.
First, I was glad the coalition member mentioned how the bill would help local development and put local economic decisions in local hands. She mentioned oil and gas, which are very important.
At the moment we have a very talented senior statesman as commissioner. He is a chemical engineer, a lawyer and has a master's in business administration. Basically the bill would make the powers of that position similar to those of a lieutenant governor. The vetoes, as the member mentioned, will expire in about 10 years. In fact they are basically what is in place now. I cannot remember them being used in recent years. They are not poorly used now and I do not think they would be used very often.
The one technical question that came up was related to financing. Basically the formula for financing would stay the same but there would be the ability to collect fees on resources. The Yukon government would be able to keep up to $3 million and the rest would affect the formula so that both the taxpayers of Canada and the taxpayers of Yukon would have a good system.
In closing, I just wanted to mention that my former Yukoner colleague from the NDP did a bit of a travelogue on Yukon, so I will add to it.
First, the land claims and self-government agreements, as I said earlier, are totally preserved and protected in the bill. There are great Yukon first nations: the Tlingit, the Tagish, the Haan, the Gwich'in, the Northern Tutchone, the Southern Tutchone and the Kaska. There are the great municipal governments of Teslin, Haines Junction, Mayo, Dawson, Whitehorse, Dawson City and Carmacks. Finally, we have the highest mountains in Canada, in fact the second highest mountain in North America, and the greatest polar icefields outside the two poles, and I encourage everyone to visit the magic and the mystery of the home of the world's greatest gold rush.