by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 16/98) - Negotiators with the Western Constitutional Working Group believe quick community consultation is critical to resolving the 20-year-old constitutional debate.

Michael Miltenberger, a member of the working group, is interested in seeing things wrap up soon.

"To me, this consultation is sort of the make-or-break kind of step at this point for me," he said. "If we don't get something clear after this, if we can't move ahead fairly definitively, I would see this process basically running out of gas.

"If we can't move along and there's too many other things, like division and economic issues, then people may suffer from constitutional fatigue."

Miltenberger said the Aboriginal Summit is interested in getting feedback on the government-to-government option, which marks a significant shift from the initial model of blended aboriginal and public governments.

"Just based on the discussion we had they're very interested in seeing what people are going to say about that approach," he said.

The government-to-government model is a straightforward approach with no plan for guaranteed representation for aboriginal people.

The blended approach has guaranteed representation for aboriginals with special veto powers.

Constitutional talks have been going on for more than two decades. But the extra few weeks of consultation will be worthwhile, said Miltenberger.