Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen and visitors in the gallery with us this afternoon. I want to begin this afternoon by congratulating you, Mr. Delorey, on your election yesterday as Speaker of the House. Mr. Delorey, I had the opportunity during the last government to work with you for a short time on committee and later on with the Board of Management and with your role as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and I must say I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the role that you have provided to the House in the past and I do look forward to working with you in the future. I also want to congratulate today our Premier-elect, Mr. Roland. It is indeed a very proud day for Mr. Roland, his family and the residents in the Beaufort-Delta area and the town of Inuvik.

Congratulations. I wish him every success as we move forward in governing this great territory of ours.

Members, six weeks ago today, I had to take my wife, Amanda, to the hospital in Edmonton with complications with the pregnancy. This has taken her away from me during the past six weeks. As many of you know, we had an election campaign that just concluded on October 1st . It has been a

tough time for me personally and I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you very much to everybody who has offered their thoughts and prayers to me and my wife through our difficulty. I just want everybody to know here today, she is still in the hospital in Edmonton. She is doing fine. Again, thank you for all of your support. It means a great deal to me.

Colleagues, I stand before you today seeking your support to become a Member of the Executive Council of the 16th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. In the time I have here this afternoon, I would like to outline for you what my plans and strategies are for serving you, the Members of this Assembly and all the residents of this territory, as a member of the Executive Council of the Northwest Territories.

I would like to begin by telling you briefly about some of my experience. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Brunswick in political science where I specialized in aboriginal self-government. I also have a background in business. In 1996, I was awarded the Business Development Bank of Canada’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. I have almost 10 years of elected political experience in the Northwest Territories, first being elected to Yellowknife City Council in 1997 and again in 2000. In 2003, I was first elected as a Member of the 15th Legislative Assembly

for the riding of Kam Lake. During the life of the last government, I served as deputy chair of Caucus, also deputy

chair of Committee of the Whole, a member of the Board of Management and a member of the Governance and Economic Development committee.

Mr. Chair, I am very excited at our prospects as a territory and I am looking forward to being a part of this team that we have assembled here today to steer the direction, vision and goals of the people we serve.

Since my election in 2003, I have been committed to work and speak on behalf of the constituents of Kam Lake. Mr. Chair, judging by the 81 percent of the vote I received on October 1st ,

I have delivered effectively representing the riding. I understand that being a Cabinet Minister would not only mean representing the constituents in my riding and the city of Yellowknife, but I would also represent the entire territory and certainly you, my colleagues. Having spent the last four years on the Regular Members’ side, I have seen how this building operates and how decisions are arrived at. I can tell you today that I feel I will be an effective Minister because of my understanding of the role and responsibility that Regular Members and Cabinet Ministers play in our system of government.

As a Regular Member, I remember how difficult it was to wait weeks for a response from a department. Sometimes that response didn’t even come. If you are to select me for a position on Cabinet, I can assure you that I will be responsive, accessible and professional in everything that I do for you, the Regular Members. I have spent four years on the Regular Members’ side and I fully understand what challenges and demands mean for a Regular Member of this House. If you select me as part of your Cabinet team, I can assure you that I will be down the hall talking to Members, not hunkered down in my office. If I am in my office, the door will always be open.

I spent the past four years answering my own phone. I would never put it on call forward. If I am in my office, I answer my phone when it rings. I don’t even have caller ID. So you can expect, Members, that same level of service should I become a Cabinet Minister. I will be honest with you and give you the straight-up answers to your questions. I understand and appreciate what politics is and what being a politician is all about. You can count on me being there when you need me to be.

Mr. Chair, I would like to speak about relationships. I know that being an effective Cabinet Minister will require a person to build trust and credibility amongst other groups. Having been a city councillor here in the city of Yellowknife for five years, I can relate to municipal issues and concerns. I have a very good working relationship with the mayor and the councillors here in Yellowknife. I have demonstrated my ability to up-build relationships in our regions and communities with aboriginal and community leaders.

As a Cabinet Minister, I would be prepared to hit the ground running in Ottawa, where it is essential that the Government of the Northwest Territories needs to make progress on key files. I have built up numerous contacts and personal relationships with the government in Ottawa. We need action on increasing the northern tax deduction. We need to secure funding for much needed transportation infrastructure. We need to keep moving devolution and resource revenue sharing forward. We need to discuss the establishment and setup of a permanent resource trust fund that eventually could help fund government operations and pay each resident of our territory a dividend annually. I will work hard on maintaining and expanding intergovernmental relationships, maintaining your confidence

and trust in me as a Cabinet Minister, and the relationships I have with you, my colleagues, will always be a top priority for me.

There are some key areas of concern for me as we begin to govern the Northwest Territories over the next four years. The disparity or the gap between small communities and larger centres must be addressed. Our government must ensure every available opportunity gets to those who require them. In order to get the opportunities into our smaller communities and regions, we are going to need resource development. The development of our resources can, and should, be sustainable as I believe we all have a strong determination to protect our environment. As a government, we must strike a balance between the preservation of our environment and opportunities for our people. Mr. Chair, I am a firm believer that we can accomplish this balance.

The government should immediately entertain a zero-based budgeting exercise that would look at government spending from top to bottom. We owe it to the residents of our territory who are looking to us to manage the delivery of essential services. We need more money for housing, health care and education. We need to make certain that each and every dollar we spend is spent in an area that is most needed. We have to address the fact that we have over 3,000 migrant workers here in the Northwest Territories. They take with them over $300 million annually to the South. That money does not contribute one iota to the prosperity of our territory. We must find creative ways to encourage people to live and remain in our territory.

We must begin a campaign that will look to denormalize alcohol consumption in our territory. The root cause of many of our social ills rest with alcohol and drugs and the damage they are having on our families, friends and communities.

Education, especially, amongst youth, is key to help stopping the negative impacts of alcohol and drugs. We need to focus on youth and healthy pursuits for our people. Every dime this government spends on helping youth participate in sport and recreational activity is money well spent. We need more programming at the community level to help give our youth alternatives to drugs and alcohol.

Addictions are another area where I believe the government can make a difference. We need more programming. We need more frontline workers. We have to support those agencies that are delivering these much needed programs.

We must continue to support our tourism industry. It has a potential to add some realistic economic diversification for our territory. We need to be investing in solid product development. We must continue to support existing operators in the areas of aurora viewing, sport fishing, sport hunting and eco-adventures. The tourism industry will be faced with many challenges ahead, especially now that our dollar is now worth more than the American dollar.

I would also like to see the Government of the Northwest Territories put more resources into our arts community. We have a very talented and dedicated artistic community across our territory. We lag far behind the funding that our neighbour to the west, the Yukon territory, provides to its arts community. We need to look at ways to close that gap.

We must make certain that all outstanding obligations to aboriginal governments are addressed. The Dehcho and Akaitcho process must be concluded. We must continue to foster relations with our two sister territories, the Yukon and Nunavut. We have a great deal in common with them both,

especially in the areas of global warming, climate change and Arctic sovereignty issues. A pan-territorial approach should be pursued when it benefits residents across the three northern territories. Having been a Member of the last government, I have had an opportunity on many different occasions to meet many of our counterparts from both the Yukon and Nunavut governments. I would certainly continue to advance our pan- territorial agenda.

In closing, colleagues, I would like to say that it would be an absolute honour and a privilege to serve on your Executive Council during the 16th Legislative Assembly. As many of you

know, I take the work of our people very seriously and from day one as a Cabinet Minister, I would never forget who put me there nor why I am there. That is to serve you, the Members of this House, and all of the residents across the Northwest Territories. Once again, I want to thank you for your attention this afternoon and good luck and best wishes to all those other candidates seeking a position on our Executive Council.

Mahsi.

---Applause