Thank you, Mr. Steen. Mr. Dent, do you accept the nomination?

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair recognizes the Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wish to nominate David Krutko, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, for a position on Cabinet.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Mr. Krutko, do you accept the nomination?

Yes, Mr. Chair, I accept.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The Chair recognizes the Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Kakfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to nominate the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Roger Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Allen, do you accept the nomination?

The Chair recognizes the Member for the Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chair, I wish to nominate Mr. Michael Miltenberger, the Member for Thebacha, for position of Cabinet.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Miltenberger, do you accept the nomination?

Yes, I do.

Do we have any further nominations? The Chair recognizes the Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. Mr. Roland, do you accept the nomination?

Yes.

The Chair now recognizes the Member for Yellowknife Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wish to nominate Mrs. Jane Groenewegen, the Member for Hay River North, for the position in Cabinet.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mrs. Groenewegen, do you accept the nomination?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Are there any further nominations for Ministerial positions? Since there are no further nominations, I declare the nominating process closed.

The nominees for Cabinet positions are as follows: for the North, Mr. Roger Allen, Mr. David Krutko, Mr. Floyd Roland, and Mr. Vince Steen. The nominees for the Yellowknife positions are Mr. Charles Dent, Mr. Joe Handley, and Mr. Jake Ootes. For the south: Mr. Jim Antoine, Mrs. Jane Groenewegen, and Mr. Michael Miltenberger.

Each candidate is now permitted to make a 10-minute speech. The speeches will be made in alphabetical order, regardless of the region you represent. So I now call upon Roger Allen to begin.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all I would like to congratulate the Premier-elect, Mr. Stephen Kakfwi, and the fine effort performed by Mr. Floyd Roland, a counterpart of mine from Inuvik Boot Lake.

I would like to say I have been asked to seek a Cabinet post by some fellow Members which I gracefully agreed to do. I think it is important we all have an interest in how our government is going to be run. I am not new to the scene. I have been involved from a regional and municipal perspective over the last 24 or 25 years.

I have also represented the Northwest Territories. I am not sure that many of you have. I represented the North in worldwide athletic competition. In that capacity, I basically acted as an ambassador for the North. So my background goes quite a way back, although I try to modestly hide it. I think today you should know I worked very hard for the good of the people in the Northwest Territories. I see that I can serve in the same capacity if elected to Cabinet.

There are a number of pressing issues before us, as we discussed in the last few days. I think those who are aware from a global perspective of the Territory-wide fiscal bugs we have. I often teach my young offenders, whom I have worked with for the last 14 years, that if you learn to listen, you can learn to learn. I bring the same philosophy to you. I will listen to you. I will bend your ear for advice from those who have been in there previously, when in a position to do so.

The important things I feel drive our economy are the large businesses across the Territories. We can create jobs and create training opportunities that have helped communities develop.

As I spoke in Caucus, I believe in order to succeed in reducing the deficit, succeed in advocating good health in communities, you have to have some formal changes in economic and business development. Those two basic drives are important; the social conditions of the community and also the cultural.

I found out from my experience over the last 25 years, that in a good, strong economic community, you have very strong healthy people simply because they can afford to do many things.

I understand from other regions there is a big push to resolve land claim agreements. We in the north end of the Territory resolved ours back in 1982, and I believe in the early '90s so we are accustomed to some of the cost benefits of having a land claims agreement. I will certainly support it to come to an early resolution. It is important.

I believe many people have spoken about having self- government and how they can most effectively deliver programs at the community level. I give you that certainty through my confidence in dealing with various interests groups throughout my tenure, working as mayor of Aklavik in the early '90s. When I started as mayor, the community had a deficit of $200,000. Two years after my tenure, I left them with a $275,000 surplus. So if you pro rate that over the cost of what the deficit is today, I feel we can achieve that very easily. It takes teamwork. I led seven councilors into believing we can do it.

I feel if I was a Minister, I could lead a department and overcome many of the obstacles. It is not an easy task. It is a tough job here convincing them. It is also a tough job convincing you to work for me. I can assure you that through my knowledge, my fortitude and perseverance, I can deliver good quality programs at the community level, because I will share in advice you give me.

Through that I would listen, pay close attention to detail, pay close attention to what is needed in all regions, not only mine. I find that standing here, I am competing with three other Members of our region, so you can tell how aggressive we are as a people to lead and help push for systematic change in the way we do business.

I talked a bit about it yesterday, how we see we have to revise a cycle, bring back some prosperity to the community and how we do it. That is the mandate our constituents have put upon us to perform. There are several big issues. I am going to say to you now I do not have all the perfect answers. I believe I can work over the next four years with a team concept, driving for change, driving for parity amongst regions and seeing that we can all prosper.

I would like to put a few puns in and put a little bit of humour into my presentation. I would like to tell my colleague from Deh Cho I want to build a bridge over there, so we can settle some troubled waters. So that is in the context as well as an appeal. I think we do have some very good possibilities to grow, but I think growth is driven by industry and business development.

I am not going to talk too much about the social envelope because that is a common theme that we will be dealing with. I believe we sometimes overkill it. Nonetheless, I acknowledge the fact we do have severe social problems. I have been involved in the social area of rehabilitation for the last 14 years, working with young offenders and community groups that have needed some unique approaches and care.

I share the concern that Mr. Krutko has raised in the last several days. We need to look strongly at our health services in the community level. I think we can come up with some equitable solutions. Again, that takes the effort of all of us.

In conclusion, I would just like to say thank you to those Members who have supported me and encouraged me to run. I think I am a quality candidate. I do not see myself as any better than anybody else here. In terms of leadership, I believe I have developed my leadership skills over the last 24 years. I think if I was called upon to lead a certain department, I can and will share the workload with all of us in terms of how we can achieve better results to make our Northwest Territories a better place to live.

With that, I thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank you, Members.

-- Applause