Bill 34, Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Agreement Act

Thank you. All those opposed, please stand. Thank you. All those abstaining, please stand. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, may we have the results of the vote? Those in favour, 17; opposed, zero; abstaining, zero. The motion is carried unanimously.

---Carried

---Applause

Bill 34 has had third reading. Colleagues, before we rise from this last sitting of the 14th Assembly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you for allowing me to serve as your Speaker for these last four years. It has been both an honour and the best experience of my career. As well, I especially want to thank my family, my mother, Amelia, my dear wife, Elaine, and the children, Warren, Blaire, Ian and my many friends and supporters whose love and confidence in me never diminished and made my work here possible and enjoyable. I have already announced that I will not be seeking re-election this November and, therefore, I wish to thank the constituents of Yellowknife South and Kam Lake ridings. I wish to thank the people of Yellowknife and the many people across the North for the privilege of serving in this Assembly as their representative.

These past 11 years for me have seen great changes and much good has come from our collective efforts. A lot has been done and I hope I have made a contribution to our North and our people in some way. There's still more to do and with our departure today, our challenge will be respectfully passed on to the next Assembly to those of you seeking election. I wish you good luck and best wishes.

I have also been asked to include at this time, on behalf of the many former Members who served in this House, a thank you to Mr. David Hamilton, our retiring Clerk for his 21 years of dedicated service to all the Members of this House. Without his skill, knowledge and commitment to our system of government and all Members and to me and my office, our job would have been more difficult. Thank you, David.

I wish to express my personal thanks and appreciation to all of the House officers, the Deputy Clerk, Mr. Schauerte; Clerks of Committees, Mr. Inch and Mr. Stewart; our Law Clerk, Ms. Peterson; and, Sergeant-at-Arms, Ms. Theede. I also wish to say thank you to my Board of Management whose excellent work on behalf of this Assembly and the elected Members is commendable and to the many young people who have served us as Pages over the years and made our Assembly a smooth, safe and efficient operation. I wish to personally acknowledge the contribution made and assistance given to me as the Speaker of the 14th Assembly by the Languages Commissioner, Ms. Fibbie Tatti; the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Mrs. Elaine Keenan-Bengts; and to the Conflict of Interest Commissioners, Mr. Ted Hughes and Ms. Carol Roberts.

Finally, a special thank you to my dedicated executive assistants over the past four years: Mrs. Barb Paquin, Sonia Golding and Sue Tkachuk. Their efficiency and organization has made my job this past term so professional, easy and the highlight of my career.

Thank you to all. Thank you. Merci.

Now, Mr. Clerk, I understand that his honour, the Deputy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories is prepared to enter the Chamber to give assent to bills and to prorogue this session of the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Clerk, would you attend to and escort the Deputy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories into the Chamber.

Question has been called. Mr. Clerk, we shall proceed with a recorded vote. All those in favour of the motion, please stand.

The honourable Member requests a recorded vote. To the motion.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I would request a recorded vote.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. We have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 34, Tlicho Land Claims and Self-Government Agreement Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried unanimously.

---Carried

---Applause

The motion is carried. Bill 34 has had second reading. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the principle of the bill. The House is ready for the question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak to the principle of the bill. I am not going to speak to the process, but again as I have previously commended the Tlicho people for bringing this vision and dream that they have to the stage where it is now. I think anybody who has been part of development in the North, will have known for some time that this has been in the works and they have brought it to a reality and I would like to commend them for that and I will support the principle of the bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. To the principle of the bill. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Tlicho people have invested years of work and literally millions of dollars of their own money to get to where we are today. They have, on their own free will, chosen to be partners with us; partners in a public government. They could have gone exclusively aboriginal, but they chose not to. It's a choice that I think all of us should celebrate. It's an offer that we cannot refuse.

Today, every day for the next few months, the next few years we have to be conscious that we're working with partners and the Tlicho are one of our strongest partners, economically and politically. They are also partners with the Gwich'in, with the Sahtu, with the Deh Cho, with the Akaitcho and the Gwich'in people, with the Metis. They have chosen to work with us on the very same agenda that we're trying to advance, whether it's diamonds, pipeline, oil and gas, devolution or revenue sharing. These are the people that we are partnering with to advance our agendas, and we need them to continue the work that we've started.

Some of us are not as well briefed or haven't taken the time to try to understand the issues of aboriginal people, and some of us haven't taken the time to read the documents that are in front of us, the offers that are made to inform us. We have an obligation as MLAs to be well informed and to make sure that our constituents are informed as well.

I also want to remind Members that every major aboriginal initiative that has come here to this legislature has always been met in the same way. Some were supported, some of us don't know, some of us are afraid and not quite sure what it means. All of us share one need. We need to know what this government, this territory, is going to look at like in two years and in 10 years. That is something singularly lacking with all of us. Some of us think we know. Some of us admit we don't know. It's a need. Unless we develop them, unless we are able to tell our people this government is going to change, there are emerging regional governments, there are aboriginal governments, there are aboriginal people negotiating their rights as part of this aboriginal government and here's how it has changed to date and here's where we are going, people are going to be afraid. People are going to ask for time. People are going to be cautious. So the leadership that we should provide and need to provide can start right here. We can't stop what is going on. Too much has passed away.

The Inuvialuit people, over the objections of this legislature, in fact ignored the Territorial Council of the day when it went ahead and was ratified and implemented. The Gwich'in claim went and there was some caution and concern, but it went ahead and so did the Sahtu claim.

Now the Tlicho claim is in front to us. The Deh Cho process is a process that embraces public government as well. There are a lot of difficult issues to face there, but it's a process that I welcome because they choose to find a way to be part of this government. We have to believe that people out there who want to be governed are saying it's going to be even better. We in this House are part of what goes on in the communities. We have to reflect the will and the aspirations of people out there. Sometimes we do have to take a leap of faith.

We have lawyers and we get advice, we pass legislation all the time. We are not quite sure of what it all means, but we go on the faith of what we are advised. I know that everything is tied together; devolution, revenue sharing, self-government, the Tlicho agreement. People out there are watching us and wondering how we are going to treat it. I have to say I believe that we are going to do it right. This piece of legislation here is one that's gives effect, so it has already been agreed to by the Tlicho, by the Government of Canada and this government. So we do hope that the Members will recognize that people are waiting for us. We are asking the Aboriginal Summit to advance significant issues that are of great concern to revenue sharing, devolution. We are asking them to take a leap of faith. Although we don't know the answers, we don't know the specifics, we are asking to partner with us and take a leap of faith. That's the challenge.

We can't afford to slow things down because we don't know. We can take a reasonable amount of time to inform ourselves and make that judgment. It's a political judgment that may be called on for some of us and I, for one, have no difficulty at all to support and I wish to deal with this as quickly as we can. Thank you.