Mr. Chairman, I would like to nominate Jim Antoine.

Mr. Chairman, I wish to nominate Honourable Stephen Kakfwi, Member for Sahtu, for the position of Premier.

Yes.

Mahsi. (Translation) Thank you. Before I speak to you, I want to say something to my constituents in the Sahtu region. Perhaps, today you hear what I am saying, perhaps you see me. I have been working for you for a long time. I am in this position because you people have voted me in here. In the recent past, a lot of people, the non-natives, the Inuit, the Metis and the Dene people have talked. Many of them requested that I put my name forward. Because this was said to me, I could not refuse them. For the past two weeks, because it is your will, you support me; I have told you that I will put my name forward for the Premiership and no matter what happens here, I will still continue to work for the people. Whether I win or if I lose, it does not matter. I just want to say thank you to all you people in the Sahtu. I am also from the Sahtu region. Whenever people request your services, you have to obey what is being asked of you and that is the reason I am putting my name forward. (Translation ends.)

I must say that this is probably one of the more difficult things that I do in public life. I have done this on a number of occasions and it is a very difficult part of our life as elected leaders. As you know, Jim Antoine has been with me, I have been with him since high school, back in the 60s. We have been together formulating our thinking, working with other Dene leaders since 1974. Today, both of us put our names forward. Some time ago, Jim and I agreed that whatever we do, we would do it together. I think both of us had no idea this is what we actually meant.

--Laughter/Applause

Both of us have been taught by our elders and by the more elderly than the chiefs, through the 70s and 80s. We have been schooled in Dene politics and the numerous assemblies and community meetings that we have been to. Always we sit here, beside each other, advising each other on how to conduct ourselves from day to day. I think you all see that. Anyway, somehow we have decided we are going to go through this together and you will get the benefit of choosing one of us. At the end, you will still have both of us in your service. I think that is extremely comforting for all of you because I think we can demonstrate how really people should work together. We will walk out of this together, no matter what happens.

The last two weeks have been extremely difficult, I think, for every one of us. There is not one of us in this Assembly that wanted the events to unfold the way they did, but they have and the people of the north have looked to us to deal with the very, very difficult decisions that we have had to make. The motion that was passed a few days ago was, in part, formulated by myself in discussions with my colleagues, and some of you on the other side. I think we have demonstrated to the people that if we have stumbled, we know how to catch ourselves, regain our feet, regain our stride and to continue without hesitation to get on with the work that we have to do. That is what that motion indicated to me. That is what that motion was formulated on.

Today, you are faced with another decision. I like to think that it is not so difficult but then that is for you to decide. I believe that our government and this Assembly is looked upon by the people all across the north, from Baffin to the Beaufort, from Fort Smith to Hall Beach. Every one of our communities is looking to us to demonstrate that we know the work that we have to do and we will show them some sign that we are going to renew our commitment to finish the work that needs to be done. I think there is a tremendous amount that needs to be done.

The very first sign, the very first signal that we will give them, will begin this morning with the election of a new Premier. I hope it will also include confirmation of a new mandate for a Premier, a mandate that will help to restore the public confidence that the people want to have in this Assembly, in this Cabinet, in the civil service, the administration and the way that we conduct ourselves. I think we will give them that.

I think we need a Premier who has shown commitment to work in the interests of people of Nunavut and the western Northwest Territories. Although we are together only for a few more months, we, in fact, will be working for the people of Nunavut for a few years to come. We will be neighbours, we will be contracting many services to the people of Nunavut, helping them to establish a brand new government, a new start. We have to demonstrate that we will be there for them, not only now, not only in the next few months, but the next few years. We need a Premier who has the experience and the confidence to make a quick transition, get in to the job this afternoon, tomorrow morning. There is no time for orientation. There is barely enough time to put together a plan on how to make maximum use of the rest of this month, the months of January, February, March.

We need a Premier who can make the best use of the Ministers that we have on Cabinet today, who can call on experienced, competent senior managers to carry out the work that we give clear direction to. We need a Premier who has the respect and the profile to deal with the various aboriginal organizations across the Northwest Territories, who has worked on the various claims, self-government agreements, who is in support of treaty land entitlement negotiations, and who has solid background and knowledge of the various agreements, self-government negotiations, political and constitutional issues. We need a Premier who can give assurance to aboriginal and non-aboriginal residents of the Northwest Territories that each and everyone of them will be treated fairly, represented fairly and that will ensure the conduct of the government and the Cabinet will be balanced; will be fair and equitable.

We need a Premier who has extensive national and international experience in dealing with issues that are of importance to the people here in the Northwest Territories; a

Premier who can deal with provincial governments, federal government, Ministers, national aboriginal leaders; and a Premier who is familiar with the workings of Ottawa, provincial governments and the various institutions that we have to deal with nationally and internationally. We need a Premier who the public can have confidence in to work to restore confidence that our government will operate according to the policies and standards that we have all set for ourselves. Those are the qualifications, I believe, that the public and ourselves are looking for in the candidates.

I want to say a little bit about myself. I have worked with the Dene Nation, as I have said, for many, many years. I spent four years as president of the Dene Nation. Every one of them was a volatile, dynamic organization in the history of the north. I worked with 26 chiefs and subchiefs for four years on a consensus basis. In the four years that I was president there was not one chief, one subchief who ever walked out of the leadership meetings. Those of you who may think that I cannot work with everyone should look to that as a demonstration of my capabilities. I have had many disagreements with chiefs, MLAs and Ministers over the years. I have always said I have never stopped talking to anyone, I have never discarded anyone. The difficulties, the animosities, they pass every time. You just have to wait it out and wait for the good side of everyone to come through. I have been through residential school, the abuse was there. We talked about the media and the difficulty of being in a public light all the time. I understand my colleagues who speak about the tremendous pain and isolation that our families, our children, our wives suffer because of the media. I have accepted that all my life.

Because I choose to live a public life, I know that no matter what the media does to me I get paid very well for what I do. My constituents, many of them, make less than $10,000 a year. I think that just about anyone of them would say, Steve, for the kind of money you make I would be glad to take the media pain and afflictions that they put on you everyday. I understand both of it. Yet, those of you that have never served in high public office will never really know and appreciate the difficulties that our families, children, loved ones have to face.

I have worked with the Inuit leaders since the 70s and am proud of the relationship that I have developed with them. Nellie Cournoyea, John Amagoalik, Kusugak and Tagak Curley, these are people to this day that I still maintain a relationship with. They are not born out of trivial little projects, they are born out of years of hard work, working together, believing in the same things. I worked with the Inuit leaders to finalize the boundary between Nunavut territory and ours. I have gone to the point of supporting the Inuit in the final boundary, even though it meant going against some of my own chiefs. That has cost me to this day. There are still chiefs and Dene leaders who have not forgiven me for that. I believe that I did what was necessary to conclude the negotiations to get on with the creation of something that I thought all of us needed, the creation of Nunavut. The creation of a dream that the Inuit had that some of us Dene leaders also believed in. I am very proud of that and it is why some of the Inuit leaders have accorded me the respect of inviting me as a private citizen, as a Dene leader to attend the ceremonies in Iqaluit on April 1st. I want you to know people of Nunavut, Inuit leaders, that I will always continue to be a friend, that even though you will be leaving in April and setting up your own government, my support for Nunavut, my support for you, will be just as strong as it was in 1981 and all the years since then I will always be here for you.

--Applause

I have had a lot of work experience at the community level. I come from Fort Good Hope, born on a trapline. I know what it is to be hungry, to be homeless, but these are things that I have chosen not to dwell on because there are a lot of exciting things to be done, beautiful things to realize. That is what I set out to work on all my life. Last year, I was away from my home 110 days. Half of the weekends I was away. Hard work, long hours are not things that I am not familiar with. These are the things that I do. This is the price that I pay, my children, my wife. That is part of my life. I do not complain about it and I know that if I am elected Premier I will be seeking to assume additional portfolios to help share the workload because I have seen how hard my fellow Ministers have been working the last three years. I would want to help and do what I can.

In my years as a Minister, particularly as a Minister of Education, I tried to reach every community in the Northwest Territories. I did not make it, but in my mind, to this day, I can see the communities in the Baffin; I can see the communities in the Kitikmeot; I can see the Keewatin. These are clear pictures that I carry with me to this day because I wanted to see. I did not want statistics, briefing notes from Pangnirtung, or Pond Inlet, or Hall Beach, or Cape Dorset. I wanted to see for myself. We blitzed the Inuit communities. I have been there and I can see that, in my mind. I was to Mr. Ningark's country, I spoke to his elders in Dene, made history. It was the first time anybody spoke Dene in that part of the world. Ten minutes in Dene spoken to the Inuit elders in the present of Mr. Ningark. We have interesting little things that we do, you know in the course of our lives and things that we find out about one another.

Mr. Arlooktoo's father, Joe Arlooktoo, served with us in this House, and one day he said, my father is buried in your home town. I want to see where my father is buried. We took Mr. Arlooktoo to my home town and introduced him to the elders who knew his father and showed him the burial site of his father. Mr. Ludy Pudluk, who served in this House for years told my one day that his grandfather was buried in Fort Good Hope. He too wanted to see the burial site of his grandfather. I took him to Fort Good Hope and introduced him to some of my uncles who knew his grandfather and they took an evening to tell him stories, to give him some idea of who this man was. They even sang him a song in French, something that he had not heard since the 1920s, amazing recollection of the elders.

That are my connections. There are little stories that you can tell about all the different things that we have done over the years. I only point them out to illustrate that mine is a very varied history. I worked on gun control legislation a number of years ago. I went to work on that for every one of us, because we all hunt and we all depend on the food from our land, whether we are Inuit, Dene, Metis or just northerners. We took on Mr. Allan Rock for a year and beat on him mercilessly. We did not win the fight, but Mr. Allan Rock has never been the same since.

--Applause

Yesterday, I did a media interview and I said, this is a Dene job. I want you to know what I meant was that it is less then a year to go and it is difficult to find a renewed mandate. It is difficult to imagine why anyone would want a situation where we would have to be selecting a new Premier at this time in our term. I do not want you to doubt my determination to serve you as a Premier, if that is what you choose, the best I can.

I told my constituency that I am going to seek re-election again in the next term. I thought about it for a long time and have decided that I still have the energy and passion to keep working. My family is still with me, supporting me. That is what I will do. I do not think this job should be a caretaker position. I think we need to finish the work as Mr. Todd and some of us have said: on devolution, on getting a new fiscal relationship with Ottawa, with getting a new economic strategy in place and with getting more responsibility and fiscal autonomy. I want to make sure that as a Premier, we will treat every one of you with the respect that you deserve in responding to your questions. I want to do that. I want to make sure that a Cabinet and FMB agenda will include a mandatory item, do any of you have a conflict of interest to declare in the course of our meetings. It would be mandatory for the Chairman to ask.

We need a mandate to continue working on the transition to two new territories and to continue working on a new economic strategy for the Western Territory to ensure that small communities get the necessary support to develop an economic base for tourism and the renewable resource sector. We want to work on restoring confidence in the civil service, work on the morale and give them the assurance that we are going to work on giving them clear direction on the things that they need to do.

There are many, many things that can be and should be done. Mostly it will be done in close consultation with Members of the Cabinet, with yourselves as Members of the Legislature and we will need to do that with leaders from right across the territories. Thank you.

--Applause