Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Definitely. Any time you reopen such significant agreements that are protected under the Constitution, the parties have to be well informed. Some of these parties have been at the table for 20 years negotiating these agreements. To reopen them is a big decision. In the Akaitcho territory we have not finished our negotiations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Starting at $120 million.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  A project of this nature has so many benefits to the region, to the community, to the governments. Any types of investments that we can acquire from the governments on this project would be very much welcomed. I indicated in our presentation that the economic benefits that are going to accrue to the north, and specifically to our region, during the phase of construction, as well as the injection of new dollars to the partners in this region from a project, is going to be such a welcome that's well needed in our part of the region.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In reference to the comments made on the land claims agreements protected under the Constitution, in order to go back, the parties all have to agree that they will open those agreements. If you're opening one part of the agreement to better serve a particular stakeholder, such as the mining industry, then the aboriginal groups, after having had these land claims in motion for a number of years, are going to work through the mechanics and find problems there as well, and they'll want to improve those problems.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just with reference to the questions that were asked, our region here, the Akaitcho region, is currently in negotiations with the federal and territorial government, under their process of the implementation of the treaty. We signed a framework agreement in 2000; it's been almost ten years, and we haven't gone beyond that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. We've been in the permitting process since March of 2007. So we've been in there a fair amount of time. We're looking at 2010 to have an approval.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Basically, Mr. Chairman, our project is one we have been working on for a number of years, and we've expended quite a substantial amount of money, in the neighbourhood of $13 million to date. We're currently in the regulatory process. We're hoping that within the regulatory process, by the spring, we'll have basically gone through the approval process and the permitting for our project in the summer of 2010.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bonjour. Edlanet'e. That's language from my region here within Akaitcho. It's Chipewyan. It's “How are you doing?” Welcome to the Akaitcho territory. Once again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us to speak with you today on a topic of great relevance to us.