Thank you Mr. Chair. Before we begin, I would like to start off with a bit of a tradition. I would like to start by sending greetings back to my folks and my constituents back home in Inuvik. Thankfully, my wife and children are here today to witness this process. To my beautiful wife, Shawna and my children, thank you very much for your support and understanding. Without it, I would not be here today.
To the residents of Inuvik, thank you for your continued support and your sincere encouragement to seek the position of Premier. You put me in this position and I will do my very best to honour your trust and the trust of all Northerners, no matter what the end result is today.
To all Members and residents of the new Northwest Territories, Happy New Year and welcome to the 21st century. This is an opportunity for a clean new start and fresh new leadership committed to positive change. I hope to have the good fortune of gaining your support so I can provide effective and open leadership with a strong Cabinet team and able Ordinary MLAs.
We need a Premier who is committed to working on behalf of all Northerners. A Premier dedicated to ensuring that it is the residents of the Northwest Territories that benefit from government programs and services, not government or its agencies.
We need a Premier who is open, honest and a straight shooter who will not dance around tough questions with open-ended rhetoric, and who will not shy away when the heat is turned up.
We need a Premier who can build relationships in Ottawa and the provinces.
We need a Premier who can bring all groups together, to support aboriginal groups in their quest for a fair and timely settlement of land claims, self-government and treaty-land entitlement for the mutual benefit of all.
We need a Premier all MLAs and the public can trust and have confidence in and who will instill confidence and enthusiasm in our public servants by providing clear direction.
We need a Premier to create the necessary environment that will help produce healthy communities and attract private sector investment in order to expand economic development opportunities for Northerners.
These are some of the qualities I believe are necessary for the position of Premier.
Although there are many priority issues to be dealt with, the most immediate and the key to our economic viability, in my view, is to ensure the establishment of an intergovernmental process with federal and aboriginal governments that will allow us to discuss issues of mutual concern. Specifically, I am speaking about the issues of economic development, northern control of northern resources and resource revenue sharing.
As you are aware, the realities this government's economic situation demand that we must create new revenues to ensure that we continue to provide essential services, such as education and health care to our residents.
New revenues are essential if we are to effectively manage the current and projected deficit we are facing. This deficit is not sustainable. We owe it to ourselves and especially to our children to take bold new steps to find a northern solution to this difficult problem. It will not be easy. We will have to be creative and take some risks but I believe we can be successful.
A northern solution to this problem is northern control over northern resources. This will provide northern governments, not Ottawa, and Northerners, not Ottawa bureaucrats, control of how development takes place in the Northwest Territories.
This important element, along with a resource revenue sharing agreement, is really what devolution is all about: taking control of our future and taking appropriate risks to increase the economic pie for the benefit of all Northerners.
Unlike other provinces, the management and responsibility for minerals, oil and gas, land and water, remains with the federal government. The only way we are going to be successful in generating more revenues for our government is to reach an agreement with the aboriginal governments and the federal government on northern control of northern resources.
Just as important, we must ensure that a fair resource revenue sharing agreement is negotiated that ensures adequate funding to all governments, be they public or aboriginal, in order to maintain programs and services for our residents.
Agreements dealing with resource issues are being signed between provincial and aboriginal governments across Canada. We in the Northwest Territories have an opportunity to develop a new model that better serves our residents.
There has been a lot of discussion over the past several months on the establishment of an intergovernmental forum,
that would bring together aboriginal governments and the federal and territorial governments to discuss these matters on a government to government to government basis. This forum is a practical means to facilitate these important discussions and as Premier, I would strongly support and participate in this process.
The intergovernmental forum and the results it can produce, in my opinion, will lay the foundation for not only generating more revenues for all governments, but will also provide the required spark for economic development.
The intergovernmental forum provides the opportunity to strengthen our partnerships with aboriginal governments and the federal government. It will provide us the opportunity to begin developing an overall, comprehensive strategy to ensure our economic potential and obtain a greater share of the benefits from the minerals, diamonds and oil and gas, that for the most part, currently only go to Ottawa.
As Premier, I would commit to the development of a comprehensive economic development strategy that takes into account the economic needs of all regions of our Territory. A strategy that respects the environment, that preserves the land, water and wildlife that have sustained our people since the beginning of time.
Economic development, no matter where it takes place, is beneficial for all residents so long as it is undertaken in an environmentally sustainable way. This is not an issue that should pit regions against one another or be seen as pitting urban communities against rural communities. Economic development is NOT about carving up an ever-shrinking pie. Economic development is about increasing the size of the entire pie so as to provide more benefit.
It is about supporting small business. It is about supporting one of our Territory's still underdeveloped renewable assets, tourism, which is about our land and our people.
As Premier, I support tourism because it is something that all residents can participate in. Tourism provides economic opportunities for small business and other important parts of our society, such as hunters and trappers. As a former tourism operator, I know first hand the benefits that this important industry can provide. Tourism is an important means of recognizing all our cultures and the strength that this diversity brings us.
However we need tools to accomplish this. Since the phasing out of the federal government's Economic Development Agreement several years ago, we have been without any federal funding to stimulate economic growth in the Northwest Territories.
The fact that the Northwest Territories does not have access to economic development agencies run by the federal government, such as the Western Economic Diversity Agency or the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, is totally unacceptable. Why is the Northwest Territories excluded?
It is unacceptable that the federal government has not delivered on its budget promise of three years ago to provide some action on this front.
I think we must take a stronger position with the federal government that ensures they provide economic development funding similar to what they provide in other regions of this country. As Premier, I will ensure this issue is forcefully put forth.
We need to take a stronger position with Ottawa and obtain access to funding so that we can plan and be prepared for when the full development actually occurs.
It is apparent that oil and gas exploration and development would provide an economic impact greater than diamonds. Unlike the diamonds, we want to be ahead of the game and be ready with skilled workers and prepared businesses, not reacting and playing catch-up. We need to look and plan ahead and be prepared if we are going to create economic development opportunities for our people.
I would like to give you a brief history of my background.
I am Inuvialuit. While I am proud to be Inuvialuit, I take just as much pride in being a Northerner. I am committed to working just as hard for all Northerners, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, no matter where they come from.
I have a long history of public service in community and regional organizations including terms as president of the Inuvik Hunters and Trappers Association, president of the Western Arctic Tourism Association and councilor and deputy mayor of Inuvik. I have also been a small business owner and a public servant.
I was first elected to this Assembly in 1995. My first three years as an Ordinary Member provided me with an excellent opportunity to view the operation of government from outside of Cabinet. More importantly, it provided me with an appreciation of the important role non-Cabinet Members play in the decision making process.
During my time as an Ordinary Member, I had the good fortune to serve as chair of the Western Coalition. The mandate of the Coalition was to work towards establishing a stable and viable new Territory after division. In many ways, the Western Coalition illustrates what can be achieved when government, aboriginal, business and community leaders work towards a common goal.
As Premier, I would be committed to continue to work with aboriginal, business, and community leaders to create a strong, stable, and more economically independent Northwest Territories.
As Minister of Transportation, I saw first hand the economic benefits and the increase in the standard of life the development of transportation infrastructure can bring to a community.
I recognize the important link between economic development, tourism development and transportation infrastructure. Even small developments such as access roads to small lakes or gravel pits provide benefits. As Premier, I am committed to increasing our transportation infrastructure in order to attract private sector investment and provide benefits to our residents.
As Minister of Housing, I witnessed first hand the one significant problem that raises the cost of our social programs, such as health care and education, the lack of adequate and affordable housing for many residents, especially those in our small rural communities.
Inadequate, over-crowded housing leads to more pressure for our health care and education systems, because many of our children do not have proper shelter.
As Premier, I am committed to strongly pressure the federal government to live up to its obligations here in the Northwest Territories.
The recent federal announcement on funding for the homeless is a tragedy for Northerners. Northerners without a home do not sleep on the streets in winter. They sleep in already over- crowded homes. We do not need money for the homeless - we need more money for more homes. I am committed to making the access to more federal funding for housing a priority.
As Minister of Health and Social Services and Minister responsible for Social Policy Renewal, I quickly came to understand the real meaning of “forced growth” and “sustainability”. I have had to work closely with my provincial, territorial and federal counterparts to deal with many issues, such as a lack of federal funding and a national nursing shortage.
It was against the advice of many people that I requested the Health and Social Services portfolio, perhaps one of the toughest portfolios in government. When I spoke to Premier Antoine, he seemed shocked and relieved at the same time. I knew it would be hard and sometimes unpleasant work, with demands outstripping resources.
As Premier, I would be committed to working in partnership with Cabinet and Ordinary Members to maintain funding for health and social services, education and housing programs. This can only be achieved by re-allocating scarce resources and finding new sources of revenues. However, these are the core services that we provide to our residents and they need to be maintained and improved.
Being a Minister requires a lot of hard work and time away from home and family. The job of Premier will also require a lot of hard work and time away from family. I accept this and my wife and children accept this. In fact, it is for our children that I have committed myself to public life.
Our new government has many challenges ahead of us. We need a new fiscal relationship with Ottawa. We need to further develop our partnership with aboriginal governments and get the intergovernmental forum off the ground so we can get a resource revenue sharing agreement that will spark economic development and generate the revenues we so badly need to provide essential programs and services.
As Premier, I will be counting on the experience of my Ministers and key staff to put together a solid team to lead our government. I will also be counting on the energy and constructive criticism of Ordinary MLAs to keep us on our toes.
I want to acknowledge and continue the good work of Jim Antoine, who stepped into the Premier's job at a very difficult time, yet made tremendous strides in building this government's relationship with aboriginal organizations.
I would like to acknowledge all the MLAs I had the good fortune to work with and learn from over the past four years.
By working together, we can overcome these challenges and take advantage of the opportunities to strike out in a new direction in the 21st century.
As I look forward to the new century, I do so with great optimism and excitement, as we have before us unparalleled opportunities. Opportunities that can best be challenged by new, vibrant, honest and energetic leadership, and a new Legislative Assembly committed to moving forward together.
I believe I can bring you this leadership. Thank you.
-- Applause