Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, offer my congratulations to you on your selection as Speaker-elect and to Mr. Roland as our new Premier-elect.

On a personal note, I would like to give special thanks to my wife and my family for all their unconditional support and love. I also want to thank my supporters and the constituents of Yellowknife South for extending me the privilege of serving as their MLA. It is on their behalf that I am here and I will raise their concerns and speak on their behalf at every opportunity.

I am seeking your support to serve as Cabinet Minister. Let me tell you about myself. I am a Metis born and raised in Fort Providence. I have an honours diploma in Administrative Management from NAIT and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Alberta. In addition, I successfully completed the program of National and International Studies at National Defence College in Kingston, Ontario.

My wife and I moved to Yellowknife from Norman Wells in 1979. I have an extensive public service background with both the federal and territorial governments. Prior to that, I worked in the oil and gas industry. I have served at the deputy minister level for the past nine years with MACA, RWED, Aboriginal Affairs, Intergovernmental Affairs, and Executive. Most recently I’ve served as Secretary to Cabinet for three-plus years.

I am a proven senior manager who can work to achieve consensus among diverse stakeholder groups to move forward on important issues. My proven experience, extensive knowledge on northern issues and ability to get things done have prepared me well to take on responsibilities as a Cabinet Minister.

At the heart of my agenda lies this simple question: What can we do today to secure the future for our children and our grandchildren? There is only one answer: a strong North through a strong people. This is our time; time for the North to carve out a safe, sustainable, and prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren in our communities. This is a time for partnership, for boldness, and for action.

There is important work to do over the next four years. It requires strong leaders who see and will seize the opportunities, address the opportunities, address the issues, and get the job done. There are powerful currents sweeping across our lives today. We need to form a collective vision and work together to make that vision a reality.

As a government, I believe our highest priorities must be first to build the capacity of our people to address the skills shortage in our economy; to increase affordable housing, reduce homelessness, and help those who cannot help themselves; to improve quality and accountability in our two most important public services -- education and health care; to be leaders in partnership with First Nations; to finalize devolution and sharing of resource revenues; to take new steps to minimize the effects of climate change.

Consensus is the key to the success of the Assembly. When we act with resolve and with common purpose, we succeed on behalf of our people. A strong people starts with family and the family is the foundation of our communities. As territorial leaders, we must recognize that times have changed, that economic growth comes with a price, and set our course accordingly. Despite the strength of our economy, there are a significant number of people who require either short or long- term supports to meet their needs. We must commit to shared economic success and not leave anyone behind.

This means that we need to increase affordable housing, reduce homelessness, and help those who cannot help themselves. These challenges require us to rethink the actions of a generation. The cornerstone of strong social policy is housing.

Homelessness is a plague that weakens our communities and erodes our social fabric. It is unacceptable. New approaches are needed before the issue turns into a crisis for our communities and our people. It will be important to integrate the efforts of territorial health and social service providers with a good work of non-government organizations that provide emergency and transitional housing in each community.

As you’ve heard several times today, when you combine health care and education authorities, these two portfolios represent more than 60 percent of the territorial budget. That is consistent with other jurisdictions, but that is an amount of taxpayer money that should be managed as effectively as possible. We don’t need to ask if we are doing things right in health care and education. What we need to ask is are we doing the right things? We need to examine early childhood education, reducing class sizes, and improving high school proficiencies. We need to ensure safe, affordable, and accessible child care, and enhance services for children with disabilities. Overall, student graduation rates have gone up over the past five years. However, despite this success, one in five students do not complete secondary studies. Further, over half of our aboriginal students do not complete their studies. As good as our education system has become -- and we have made huge strides -- it can and must be even better.

Despite efficiency gains, new funding, and increased service levels obtained in the last five years, challenges in health delivery remain. Left unchecked, demands for more funding will see our public health care system reach a breaking point, not in decades, but in a matter of years. We need to review our plan for health care in the Northwest Territories. We should abandon those things that just aren’t working very well and be bold enough to deliver our health services differently where it makes sense to do so. As a government, we can control health care capacity; we cannot control patient demands on our health care system.

As a government, we must be innovative in exploring new ways to delivering health services. This will not be easy, but we must be determined to put our public health care system on a footing

that ensures sustainability and ensure that people have access to the high quality care they need when they need it.

The people of the Northwest Territories are forging a new chapter in our history. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the new relationships that have been forged with First Nations. Their legacy is a testament to positive leadership and a lasting contribution to the NWT.

The interests of the Territories are best served by a negotiated resolution of aboriginal rights, including land, resources, and self-government agreements, and the political and constitutional development of the Northwest Territories. A strong economy and sustainable environmental principles are two sides of the same coin. We can develop our resources, but only if we do so in a manner that respects the environment. We must develop a balanced, diversified, and sustainable economic plan that safeguards the environment and addresses climate change.

We must relentlessly pursue two priorities around resources development. The first is a 10-year plan for allocation of royalties based on sustainable economic principles. That would normalize the boom-bust cycles that have plagued us over the years. The second priority is to finalize and implement devolution and resource revenue sharing. Northerners feel that they lack control over the economic development of our territory and that those responsible are not accountable or do not exercise their mandate. The federal government receives the royalty revenues and we are left paying for the negative impacts of development. That must change. We need a good deal on devolution and resource revenue sharing. It is important that we speak as one voice when we approach Ottawa so that we can deal from a position of strength.

At the end of November, Tuktoyaktuk will host the country’s first remote community wind energy conference. Wind and hydro-electric energy can help us achieve our climate change priorities.

The NWT is blessed with an abundance of natural resources that gives me confidence that the future is bright for our children in our communities. We need to work to lower the cost of living. This is one of our biggest challenges. We need to convince the federal government to increase the northern residents tax deduction. Planning for strategic investments in infrastructure, such as the Mackenzie Valley highway to the Arctic Ocean should be undertaken.

While campaigning, many people told me they feel unsafe walking on our streets. We need to develop innovative programs and partnerships to stop drugs to keep our streets safe, and to protect our citizens and our properties in our communities.

There is important work to do over the next four years; work that requires a clear understanding of how governments operate at the federal, territorial, and regional level; work that requires consensus building and negotiating skills; work that must be done today because it should start tomorrow. We need to work together to solve the difficult issues of land claims and resource revenues so we can seize control of our future and address the common goals that we all face.

I offer you my skills, my strong work ethic, and a commitment to work diligently and to do my best for the people of the NWT and for the people in my constituency. I’m seeking your support for the privilege of holding a Cabinet position. Thank you.

---Applause