Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Watson, I'm glad you brought up the devolution agreement. I'm just looking at the minister's mandate letter to “Continue to work on the Nunavut Devolution Final Agreement”.
We all know it's been going on for the last 20 years. Some territories have had more success than others. Nunavut is still an outstanding...and it hasn't been finalized or, it sounds like, even come close.
That's my question: where are we? It's a policy that we've supported and we believe that it's key to the economic success of Nunavut and its people.
One reason it is current this week is the article titled, “No more protected areas until devolution, Nunavut premier tells Ottawa”, which states in part:
The Government of Nunavut won't support any new marine protected areas, or any other federal conservation areas in the territory, until after a devolution deal between Canada and Nunavut is completed, says Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq.
The reason this is a particularly sore spot for me, as a member of Parliament for northern B.C., is that we just saw a huge tract of land—700,000 hectares in northern B.C.—close with little to no consultation with the local indigenous and non-indigenous people in my area. We tried. We tried to have a seat at the table, to have some input. We said if they really wanted to see caribou populations increase, they needed to talk to us.
I understand. I can completely relate to the premier's concern about this, and that's my little statement there, you could say, but the question is, where is devolution at? If this is what's holding up so many things in Nunavut, where is devolution at, from your perspective today?