Madam Speaker, I have great respect for the minister and the work he has shown in this place towards raising the awareness of all of us on indigenous rights, language and culture.
I have been encouraged in the last couple of days with the direction in which the government is moving on this issue. The minister talked about the impact of having the RCMP involved in these actions, which can cause real trauma among indigenous groups who have dealt with the RCMP before. I am happy that they have pledged to move ahead with a peaceful solution.
I wonder if the minister could respond to the NDP's comments that for the last weeks we have been asking the Prime Minister to get involved. This is a federal issue, but the Prime Minister stated here two weeks ago that it was not. I am wondering if he can now say that the Prime Minister will put that behind him, and go and talk to the hereditary chiefs and get a peaceful solution to this very important issue.