Good morning, everyone. I would ask you all to rise and I would ask Mr. Beaulieu to lead us in prayer this morning.

---Prayer

Please be seated. Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I would like to call the Territorial Leadership Committee back to order. The next item on our agenda is the election of our Premier. Our agreed upon procedure will see us call for nominations for the Premier’s position. This will be followed by speeches from the nominees and then a series of questions for the nominees. Let us proceed.

Are there any nominations for the position of Premier? The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wish to nominate Mr. Floyd Roland, Member for Boot Lake, for the position of Premier. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Does the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake accept the nomination?

Thank you. Yes, I do.

The nomination has been accepted. Are there any other nominations for the position of Premier? The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

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

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does the honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger, accept the nomination?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

The Member for Thebacha accepts the nomination. Are there any further nominations for the position of Premier? Final call for nominations for the position of Premier. Hearing none, nominations are closed and we will move to the next step on our agenda and we will call on the honourable Member for Thebacha to give a 20-minute speech.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I would like to thank my colleague for Tu Nedhe for nominating me. I would like to welcome everybody to the House. I would like to welcome everybody listening and watching on TV and radio to the House, the House of the people, the House that consensus government built, the type of government that has allowed us to do many of the things that we have accomplished over the last number of years with negotiations with aboriginal people, with the types of programs we have been able to bring to communities large and small. It’s the type of government that allows this debate that we are having today in the House where two friends can stand up and offer their services to the people of the North.

My colleague and I, Mr. Roland, came through this door 12 years ago together as new MLAs in the 13th Assembly. We

have worked together and been friends since that time and supported each other through the various highs and lows that have occurred as they are want to do in the legislative life. We have worked through the dark days of 1995, up through division and survived Y2K and a new century that we have been working on since then for the benefit of the people. So it’s clear to everybody here today and those missing, we are friends, we will be friends and I will support him as he will support me as long as we are in this Legislature and beyond.

Mr. Speaker, every Legislature builds on the work of those previous Legislatures and that’s our task here today. For me, my vision is a very basic one. If we want a sustainable society and a strong economy, it has to be built on two things: a healthy environment and healthy people. There are three major problems that are challenging us and the rest of the world as we try to achieve that vision.

The first one is the huge population that the world has got -- six billion people, soon to be nine billion over the next 20 or 25 years -- putting an incredible strain and demand on the resources and systems that we have in the world. There is the whole issue of global warming and what that is doing to our climate. We know that this is not just an abstract argument, but it’s real to all of us. We know there are resource companies and multinational companies lined up to come into the North to take advantage and extract and drill for and mine for every resource we have available, because there is a huge and growing demand in the world.

We know in our territory, the land, the water is changing and not necessarily for the better. We know that things outside our boundaries, in Alberta for example, are putting a dramatic impact and pressure on the Mackenzie River Basin and the whole Northwest Territories watershed down to the Arctic Ocean. There are things like invasive species, the pine beetle is on our borders, Tuk and Aklavik are facing erosion and water problems, fisheries are disappearing, water levels are

dropping, lakes are disappearing. I know this because in my own constituency, some lakes have disappeared. Some are so low that they become two. Last year, there was a 10-foot drop in the Slave River, so we know that there are significant problems facing us as we try to achieve the goal of a healthy environment and healthy people, which would give us our sustainable society.

We have tremendous opportunity. Canada is one of the best counties in the world and the Northwest Territories is by far, in my opinion, the best place to live; a magnificent country and splendid opportunities and tremendous resources both from the people and the land, but there are challenges. The question is, when you have the water, the land, the animals and the people, resource development, what is the balance? It’s a debate that we have yet to be had as northerners. It’s a debate that needs to be had. It’s a discussion that we have to have as northerners. What type of development, how fast, where is it, are we getting an acceptable return from the resources, wealth and riches that are being extracted from our land? Those are the questions. I think, as we proceed as the 16th Assembly, we

have to have that discussion. It is absolutely fundamental. These will lead to very, very fundamental policy decisions and direction for government not only for the life of the 16th Assembly, but for governments beyond, so we can’t start any sooner.

In order to answer that question, there are things we have to do. We have to come to grips with the whole issue of cumulative impact. We cannot just look at a project-by-project basis at development across the Northwest Territories or in the transboundary areas like northern Alberta. We can’t look at Giant Mine, the pipeline, individual diamond mines on their own merit. While they have their own merits and their own issues, we have to put them all together because the pressures on the land are going to be great and if we don’t know what the cumulative impact is, how do we know what type of development is in the best interest of northerners and in the best interest of future generations?

I point to the caribou. We know that there are things happening. The numbers are down. There are climate change issues, resource development issues, hunting issues. I understand the work done on the Beverly Qamanirjuaq only reinforces that downward trend in caribou numbers. That is but one critical example that has to be looked at when we talk about cumulative impact.

We have to support the whole process of land use planning that has been taking place in the Deh Cho or Gwich’in region and with the Sahtu. We have to encourage every region to do that and we have to be able to link that together so we have a territorial land use plan, so when we sit down as a Legislature and when we talk with the aboriginal governments and the other leaders, we have a sense of direction of what is acceptable to us and how do we proceed. This will allow us, as well, to build a much clearer frame around the Protected Areas Strategy.

I believe, as well, we clearly need, as part of that process, a specific water strategy for the Northwest Territories. We are the only jurisdiction in the country that has approved unanimously, in this House, a motion that has declared water a fundamental right. I think we should take full credit for that because that is, in fact, the case. I would hope that this Assembly would reaffirm that commitment and in all the policy decisions that we make on resource development and what’s happening, water has to be considered in that context.

We know that there is…(inaudible)…happening in Alberta, as well as across the world. You look at the news, the lakes are dropping. So water is going to be absolutely critical for us.

We have to bring ourselves together to discuss these issues. We need a strong northern voice; not just a strong northern voice in this Legislature, but a strong northern voice.

Beyond the money and resource sharing is the issue of devolution. This discussion is fundamental to those two initiatives that we have underway and it’s my belief the fact that there is so much fundamental concern for the land, the water and the animals is the one factor that will bring all the aboriginal governments and the territorial government into the same tent to finally nail down a devolution agreement. That is far more important, in my mind, than money for some short- term jobs and short-term resource development. I believe there is a page to be taken by this strong stand taken by Premier Williams in Newfoundland. There is nothing wrong standing up strong and tall as a northerner and saying things are not acceptable. We want a better deal for our people. In fact, we should be doing a resource royalty review. Alberta did it and they found they were getting shortchanged by $2 billion a year. The royalty regime in the Northwest Territories is by far worse. We are literally giving the resources away that our children, grandchildren and generations to come are going to be depending on.

So we have lots to do in that particular area, but as we focus on those fundamental issues, we have to keep in mind that we have a government to run and we have a $1.2 billion budget to administer and we have a tremendous list of demands by the people in our communities, large and small, that far exceeds the money available to complete it. The scan that we all had given to us earlier this week tell us that now 70 cents of every dollar is spent on social programs.

As I search back in my memory to the start of the 13th Assembly, if you check the numbers, that number at that time was probably about 60 cents. So we are in a battle and we can’t win if we just continue on the same track of trying to fix problems after they happen or cure people after they are sick. We are not only in this struggle; every jurisdiction in the country in North America and in the world, as a matter of fact, is fighting the same problem. There will never be enough money, even if they gave us every cent of royalties, to deal with all the problems that we have, if we don’t start making a difference in the health and social indicators like smoking, drinking, the suicide rates, the violent crimes, the housing statistics, the sexually transmitted infections. We have to not forget that the government can’t fix everything. We can help people. We are talking, for the most part, about some very fundamental issues when it comes to the health of our population. That is diet, exercise, smoking, the abuse of alcohol and drugs. Those contribute to the majority of our costs, and I can tell you, as Health Minister for five years, they are there. We have to work on the prevention side. We have to expand our commitment in the schools with recreation and phys. ed. We have to continue to work with other departments, MACA and the communities for active living and we have to continue to invest promotions like Don’t be a Butthead, because if we don’t make a dent and turn some of those trends around, we will never be successful and we will never have enough money.

As we look forward, we know that there is concern about the demands and the money that has to cause us to look at the government and how it’s structured and how it’s set up. I am suggesting that we should be looking, rather than growing government at this point, consolidating what we have and we

should be doing a zero-based budget review and program review that will tell us how effectively those programs are running, are they the right programs, should we even be doing those programs and if we aren’t, what programs should we be doing? That will also give us the opportunity to possibly reprofile money because rather than grow government, we know there are areas that are underfunded that are struggling to survive in the NGO sector, the volunteer sector, where they get by on a shoestring, where they are begging us every year for some extra funds so they can try to keep staff. We know that there are literacy issues, that the communities don’t have enough to pay their senior staff. So we have plenty of places within the courses that we currently run that we should be looking at before we want to expand the role of government.

There are also challenges for us. We have spent my life in this Legislature focussed in terms of transportation almost exclusively on Highway No. 3 and the Ingraham Trail. It had to be done; the road to the capital, the money was spent. But we have to try to turn our attention, in conjunction with the federal government, to other areas of the region in the Northwest Territories. We have heard talk from almost every community about the Dempster, the road to Tuk, access to gravel sources. In my region, the federal government is ready to put money on the table to chipseal, finally, after 12 years, the road through the park. We have to nail those agreements down. We have to get the money and we have to start looking at how we put those resources to work in some of the areas. I don’t want to forget the road through the Tlicho. I have been talking about that since I first got elected in 1995 and I still think it’s a good idea today.

We know that before us are going to be plenty of challenges, tremendous opportunities to do this, possibly better to improve on the lessons we have learned from the 14th Assembly. But

let there be no mistake; as we struggle and balance the money and demands, we are going to have to make choices. We are going to have to make good, solid, informed choices, but they aren’t going to be easy. Anybody that’s been here before, the longer you’ve been here, the more that you will know that we are in the business of having to make choices, the best decisions we can make for all our people, but we have to make them. That’s why we are here.

Mr. Chairman, as we look at all that’s before us, we are going to be engaging in a business planning budget process that is waiting for the culmination of this particular process that will allow us to roll up our sleeves and get ready to get to work for the people of the Northwest Territories. As we prepare to do that, we have to keep in mind we want to put to use all the talent we have around this table. Mr. Roland and I have a collective experience of 24 years in this Legislature and about 11 years between us in Cabinet with a whole range of major departments. Those skills and experiences have to be put to use and every one of us brings our own skills and experiences that have to be put to use. It’s going to recall the collective effort of all of us.

As we prepare to do that, I want to give you a number that will hopefully give you the sense of urgency of how fast time can move in this business. We have less in our mandate, as of today, 1,443 days to try to accomplish things of significance to the people of the Northwest Territories and the agenda we are going to be setting in the coming weeks. Clearly, we conclude this process, we get set up in our committee structures and we have to be prepared to get to work.

I look forward to working with all the Members in the restructured, hopefully, committee process and a strong

relationship between Cabinet and the committees. We have to, as we embark upon this, keep in mind that we are going to be gathering with the aboriginal governments and we have to gather with the people of the Northwest Territories to have this fundamental discussion about the development, about how we want to move forward in a very fundamental way as a territory, not forgetting that there is more to our economy than mega projects and mining and diamonds. In many of our communities, we struggle with the small business sector. Tourism has been undernourished for years and we have to pay attention to those areas because not every community has a diamond mine in their backyard or a pipeline running by their doorstep close enough where they can take direct benefit from that.

So there are many things for us to do and I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to stand here today in this House as a Member of Thebacha to offer my services as Premier for the people of the Northwest Territories and this Assembly. Thank you very much. Don’t forget, 1,443 days. The clock is ticking. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I will now call upon the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we heard from Mr. Miltenberger about the collective experience we’ve had in this Legislative Assembly, there are a number of us Members who have returned for our fourth term here, so collectively we bring a lot of history through some difficult times and we’ve worked together to try to build and make the Northwest Territories a stronger place for our children so their future and foundation is solid.

I think our goal is to try to ensure that what we do here, and realizing the decisions we make, is going to have far reaching impacts on the lives of the people of the Northwest Territories.

As I thought about this and thought about what I might be able to offer to this Assembly and to the people of the Northwest Territories, I thought I might start with a little bit of personal history. I won’t go into a biography of day by day, once upon a time, a long, long time ago, but I will start laying down some of the context of who I am and the values that I hold and maybe why I have become the person I am.

Quite simply, I am an Inuvialuit, I am a northerner and I am a Canadian. I was born at the Inuvik General Hospital in 1961 and after being discharged, spent the first few days of my life in a tent on the shores of the east branch of the Mackenzie River with my birthmother and grandmother. I was adopted at five days old to David Roland. Excuse me. I will put the words in the matter…Excuse me…You can tell, this man, this family had had a huge impact on my life. With the strength of you, Dad, I will move forward. In his words, he would say to those listening, my wife went to Inuvik to get some supplies. When the bombardier returned that evening, he thought that he had better meet her just in case she had something heavy to carry home. When meeting her at the bombardier shack, she was indeed carrying a bundle and to his surprise, it was a little baby boy. Now I will save you the rest of the day by day biography and leave that best to another time, I believe.

See, I believe it is our past that helped to find what our present and, more importantly, what our future may hold. To move ahead, we must know where we have come from. We must build on the foundations that was laid by our parents and grandparents; the foundation which is all-encompassing. It was about the values of everyday life. There was an order or structure to life that we seemed to have from time to time lost. Let me put it this way: What do we want for our children and, more importantly, what tools are we ready to give them?

The man I call dad grew up in conditions that were much harsher than our generation has experienced. Whether it was building a snow house every evening for himself, his wife and his first child while travelling from the Sachs Harbour area to the Mackenzie Delta, or building his first house by hand out of green trees or pulling a tarp over himself on the tundra as he watched over the reindeer herd, it is the people of his generation that have seen the greatest transition. The leaders of his time looked to the future and recognized the challenging times and adapted.

As a young boy, I travelled on many hunting trips with my dad and his friends. In the spring, we trapped muskrats; in the summer, we went whaling and fishing. In the fall, we hunted caribou and geese and some of these trips meant missing a few days of school and I remember those days with great fondness; not only the missing school part, but on the land.

That is why I can recall that one fall day when he told me I could not go hunting with him. When I asked him why, he replied he wanted me to get a good education and that I should not miss any more school. When I was a young boy, I did not understand that nor did I want to, but I respected him enough to listen and obey his wishes. Yes, I may have grumbled and complained, but I listened to his wishes.

Today I can understand his position. Back then, he could see the changing times and he wanted to give me the right tools to proceed. Now I ask myself, what do I see as a future for my children? What tools will I provide for them? I look around today at what is happening in the North and across this country we call Canada. I ask myself is this what the people of that generation envisioned for us and our children? There are days when I know our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers would have heavy hearts. As well, there are days when I know they would look at us and say they have found their way, our vision is becoming a reality.

What is our vision? How will we build on the foundation that has been laid before us? Let me give you some ideas of where I think we can go and this is about the tools we will need to do the job.

The opportunities before us are numerous. Like the start of a hunting season, there are animals in abundance. A successful hunt will depend on a skilful hunter using the right equipment at the right time and place. I am using a northern analogy. We have all heard about getting a piece of the pie or growing the pie bigger. Here is what I think about of a northern analogy with my past and upbringing. I will try to put this in a way that you will understand.

The federal government holds the rifle for the hunt. They hold most of the regulatory authority in the NWT. They gain most directly from the development of our resources. The GNWT has the ammunition for the gun. We have some regulatory authority and gain some benefits from development. Aboriginal groups and governments have traditional knowledge to bring the hunters to the animals. They have some authority as well within

their land claims and traditional areas and gain some benefits from development. Only by working together can we make the hunt successful. If there is only debate and discussion and disagreement, the people will go hungry. We will continue to rely on the monthly income support cheque that many talk about. I believe it is time to move ahead. Like our elders who prepared for the hunt, we cannot let ourselves continue with more talk. They knew that even if the weather was not the best, they had to begin to move or lose another opportunity to provide the people with good food. It is time to move ahead for the good of all northerners. I believe in people sharing the responsibility of building healthy families, communities and a strong territory. The social fabric of the Northwest Territories faces many challenges from the outside and some from within.

I have seen many attempts to make things better for people, whether it was a program run by government or NGOs. While many meet the needs of our people, many still fall short of the desired outcome. I believe to truly build strong families we need to start right at the family level. First, we need babies to be born healthy. Then we need to put the right supports in place in the first days of families to give families a fighting chance. What we should not be doing is taking the responsibility away from parents to be just that: parents. We need to give them the right tools to help build strong families. We need to take a step back and look at what we are doing. Is what we are doing making us stronger or weaker? I believe protecting the values and cultures of northern peoples will give us a strong northern voice and identity. Like our elders before us, we have to look past today and look at what the next season will bring and plan accordingly. This includes consideration on the environment and the decisions we make as part of a bigger picture.

When I ran a small tourism company, it gave me great joy to show people who travelled up to the Mackenzie Delta the land that is in our backyard and the abundance of animals that also use that land to live, to share the stories of my father and how he lived and survived in such a challenging environment. You see, to many of us that call this land home have a very personal attachment to it.

That’s not to say that we are not willing to see development happen. All one has to do is look at a number of the land claims that have been settled and look at the measures that have been put in place that protects the land while allowing development to proceed.

Building a balanced and strong economy which incorporates the values of the people who call this land home is not just a possibility, but it is a reality and becoming more so day by day, agreement by agreement.

What we want is an economy that benefits northerners, an economy that leaves behind lasting benefits. Aboriginal people are playing more and more in the NWT’s economy and this trend can, and should, continue. We have examples with agreements with the aboriginal groups and governments around the territory, for example, around the diamond mines with joint ventures. If the gas pipeline is to proceed, this can continue and should continue to be done through joint ventures such as the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. Northerners, aboriginal northerners, are becoming more than just labourers in the land today. All northerners can benefit from this if it is done properly and protects and leaves lasting benefits for the people of the North.

Infrastructure development, like the Mackenzie Valley highway, can bring direct financial benefits to our regions, can help

reduce the cost of living in communities and help our remote communities become more sustainable. I believe if we don’t move forward, we will see, as we have seen in other parts of Canada, smaller communities becoming less and less sustainable. The cost of living in our most remote communities that aren’t connected by main transportation systems continue to have difficulty bringing people in to help them deliver services day to day.

As young people from those communities see what the outside larger communities and the outside country provides, once they get their education, they are looking to better their lives and they are moving on. That is a fact of life.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that as well as government, we have to look at ourselves, the example we set. An efficient and effective government is critical. I believe it is healthy for a government to look within and re-evaluate what it’s doing and how it’s doing it. I believe we are doing that. As we start out as Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly, we set the direction,

we can set the course and we can ensure that it is implemented by working together.

Now, yesterday we heard from the Throne speech delivered in Ottawa. It once again mentioned the North prominently. We heard that message and what it had to offer and state about what the North may hold. I think we need to send our message back; one that says we are ready and we can do our part, not have someone make those decisions for us in Ottawa. We are willing, able and have the ability and people to make a difference in the North. We can help Canada build on Arctic sovereignty; we live here. We can help Canada become a stronger economy in the world by working with our people and the resources this land holds. We, as northerners, need to benefit.

So I say we can help Canada. This is the message I would send: Let us help you, Canada, in making our national anthem a reality, by making this land a true north strong and free.

As you can tell, I am passionate about the people I represent and the land they call home. My father, like his father, walked this land, harvested from this land and now rests in this land. They helped set the foundation. Now it is our turn to build a stronger foundation, a stronger North. I believe our future success depends on can we speak with one voice and be backed by the strength of many.

I look forward to the challenges because I believe challenges are opportunities. I look forward to working with Members of this Assembly in whatever role you see me fitting in. I believe we can build a stronger and prosperous Northwest Territories and move this great territory to where it should be. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Before we move on, colleagues, to the next order of business, I would like to just draw your attention to the fact that Mr. Jackson Lafferty is not present with us this morning, but it's certainly not that he's not interested in what's going on. He had a family emergency that he had to deal with this morning and he's hoping that he can joins us fairly quickly.

We'll now move on to the next order on the order of business and that is that Members are permitted to ask a maximum of two questions to each of the candidates. So I will now open the floor to questions to the candidates. Honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The one question I do have for the candidates right now is that the government often gets criticized for bureaucratic answers and not listening to the people, so I'm wondering how would the prospective Premiers address this question of having real answers for the people and the communities that want them there, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I'm quite sure I heard you were addressing that question to both candidates, so I will go to Mr. Miltenberger first.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member well knows the processes we have in place to try to deal effectively with communities, questions raised by Members, questions raised by communities. We have staff on the ground; we have, hopefully, a strong, functioning committee system; and, yes, we always have to be concerned about giving clear, understandable answers to questions posed, recognizing that we want to work with the planning with the communities and within the funds that we have available to try to do that, which is why we have the capital planning process…(Microphone turned off)…is not muddy by lack of clarity. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. I will now go to Mr. Roland.

Thank you. I think that's a good question, because as we start out as Members of the 16th Assembly, as I

was stating earlier, we can set the foundation, we can build on the path of work we would like to see this territory go. I believe that in giving the message to the people, it has to be a real one and sometimes that means being tough with some of our own and accepting responsibility of the decisions we make and the role we all play in building the territory. More importantly, I think, at the same time, we have to look at what the values our people hold in this territory, and from the smallest community to the largest community, how do we make the programs work for them. That's where we have to look at the re-evaluation of who we are as a government and the programs we deliver. Do they make sense or should they be changed or altered? All within the fine context of the resources we have available to us, and I think that's where, as we were talking about earlier, the strength of who we are as a people will come to the forefront and to challenge the system to work for the people is going to be a difficult one. That's one of the things I was saddened or, I guess, felt somewhat disappointed with when I first became a Member in the 13th Assembly, was I had lots of ideas and I

thought we could make change immediately and found they happened slowly, because we work in an environment of laws and policies is one thing, but if a policy don't make sense and if a law is not working for the people, then we have the ability here to make that change. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Further question, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Another question I had is just that at the end of Mr. Roland's reply, he spoke about a policy not making sense. I think in the past, government does make mistakes and my concern is how well our Premiers look at any mistakes that are shown out there, how would they propose to correct a mistake in government. I know that often governments don't like to do it. In the public, we see that often government hates to admit to a mistake. But should we prove that there's a mistake being done, how do the

Premiers propose to correct a wrong or an injustice that has been done in the past? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I'll go to Mr. Roland first.

Thank you. I think we can make a difference immediately. Again, as a 16th Assembly, if we see programs

that aren't working, as many of you have gone around to your communities door to door and heard about the programs that we deliver as the Government of the Northwest Territories, if they're not making sense and we have to re-evaluate and, again, that can be done by a program review.

At the same time, we must not continue to throw good money after bad, and that can be about a program, a policy, as well as another review. We've heard many times more reviews, another consultation group going out there. So we need to be focussed on what we do. Sometimes we do need to give time to see if a program will work and work properly, but if it's clearly not working right, then why should we continue to spend money after a program that is just not working and review that as a sense of taking a different stance, reverting back to what was delivered? I'm sure we can all find in the history of the Northwest Territories where one initiative was started a number of Assemblies ago has been brought back under another title but almost the same scenarios. Thank you.