Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, visitors in the gallery, and to all the people across the Northwest Territories who are tuned in today. First of all I’d like to congratulate you, Mr. Speaker, in your role as the Speaker of the House for the 16th Legislative Assembly. I’m sure the Members of this House

have once again chosen the right person for the job.

Also congratulations to the MLA for Boot Lake, the Honourable Floyd Roland. I’ve had the privilege of working and dealing with Mr. Roland for the last two governments now and I certainly can vouch for his abilities and his dedication.

Mr. Chairman, political life can be very demanding and all of us know that family life is very important, so I want to just take a few seconds to thank my wife, Joyce, who tells me she’s going to have her ear glued to the radio today. As well, my son, Kevin, my daughter Shawna, and also my daughter Robyn, who’s in Red Deer College cheering me on. So I’ve been very blessed and very fortunate to have a family that offers me support and understanding throughout my career.

I want to say a big thank you to the people of Deh Cho who have given me such a strong showing of support. I especially want to thank those people who worked on my short-lived campaign.

I’d like to start by giving a little bit of a history about myself. I was born here in the Northwest Territories in the community of Fort Providence. I have seen the problems and the challenges that face all our communities across the North. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel and meet a very good deal of interesting people throughout my life. My education and my background have all been in the field of politics, management and business. I’ve been an MLA for the Deh Cho now for eight years. During my first term in the 14th Assembly, I was a

Regular Member and I was also the chair of the Non-Tax- Based Community Affairs committee. In the 15th Assembly,

I’ve had the pleasure of serving in a number of roles as Minister. Towards the end of the government, I was the Minister of Municipal of Community Affairs, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, the Minister responsible for Youth, the Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Housing and the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board.

Mr. Chairman, my reasons for running for Cabinet haven’t changed a lot over the last few years. I continue to have a genuine interest in creating a better quality of life for the people in the North. Eight years ago I put my name forward for the position of MLA because I wanted to improve the standard of living for our children; I wanted to see our economic, our political and cultural way of life assured for all the residents in the Northwest Territories. I also wanted to create new and better relationships with our communities, with our aboriginal governments and with the federal government. These are the views that I will continue to bring to the Cabinet table and to Cabinet discussions.

There are a number of key areas that this government has to focus on over the next four years, in my opinion. The first is to

deal effectively with aboriginal governments in the North to settle land claims and other outstanding issues. Signing off on the land use plans and supporting the development of protected areas will certainly go a long way in helping us move forward in other areas such as devolution and resource revenue sharing. The aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories have been at the negotiating tables addressing self- government issues and land issues for a very long time and we need to bring these matters to a conclusion. That will require trust and cooperation.

An issue that has jumped front and centre during the life of this last Assembly, Mr. Chairman, is the challenges facing our environment. We live in a part of the world where the environment is of the utmost importance and it is also very fragile. Unlike other jurisdictions, the management and the responsibility for mining, oil and gas, land, water and environment still rests with the federal government. We’ve heard from aboriginal leaders, we’ve heard from community leaders and people from across the North that we have to do everything in our power to protect our water, our land, our wildlife and our resources. Mr. Chairman, although our last government came very close to settling an agreement with the federal government, the issue of transferring jurisdiction over northern lands and resources from Ottawa to the North continues to plague us. It’s so important that decisions that affect our lives are made here and not made elsewhere. We also need to negotiate an agreement that will give us our rightful share of our royalties and our resource revenues. There have been some encouraging comments made in the Throne speech yesterday that may indicate renewed interest to some of these northern issues. My position is that we have to move forward with all the aboriginal governments as partners. We need to speak with a unified voice on this issue to conclude these discussions and to begin to collect what’s rightfully ours.

Mr. Chairman, the North has the fastest growing economy in Canada. The development of our diamonds and our oil and gas has created many jobs and business opportunities and while there’s a high level of employment across the North, there are still considerable differences between some of our larger centres and the smaller communities. There is certainly more demand for labour and economy than the North is able to supply. More work has to be done to ensure that the residents have the skills and the abilities to take advantage of the opportunities available. We must also ensure that we have adequate programs to help companies and small businesses get started and to continue to operate. Many of today’s business support programs seem to be falling short of our actual need.

Mr. Chairman, I’m sure everyone here will agree that our most important investment that we, as a government, can make is for our youth. We have a large population of our youth that are under 20. Youth centres, organized recreation programs, trapping programs and better sports facilities will contribute to improve graduation rates and lower the high levels of youth crime many of our communities are facing. Without investment and training in educational programs, we will see many of the jobs in the North continue to head south.

Our government has to look at ways, also, to bring life into our non-renewable sector. I believe long-term economic future lies in the tourism and non-traditional economies that includes trapping and furs. The whole sector has a great deal of untapped potential and we have to give it higher priority.

Mr. Chairman, we also need Ministers that will include MLAs in planning and setting priorities and developing guiding

principles. During my time as an MLA and as a Minister, I’ve learned a lot about communicating and working with people from all walks of life. I practice an open door policy that works well for me and being able to speak openly to people is certainly central to an effective consensus government.

Mr. Chairman, in closing, there are many issues out there and many other issues that have been raised to me that we should have opportunity to deal with. The cost of living will continue to rise and there’s most concern with people in the North. We need to find solutions to reduce the cost of basic necessities and heating fuel. We still have a situation of overcrowding and shortage of housing in the Northwest Territories and playing catch-up with our infrastructure will be a challenge. Reviewing the policies and our programs that our seniors and our disabled residents are concerned about will need to be a priority. We have many other issues that affect our social well-being that I don’t have time to raise here today; however, these issues are very important to me and whether or not I’m elected to a Cabinet position, I will continue to raise these matters and put them to the forefront of this government’s agenda.

Finally, I want to say that I’m not a person that shies away from making tough decisions. I think I’ve proven that. I pride myself on bringing new ideas to the table. We’re living in very exciting times and we have opportunities opening up right across the Territories. It’s important at this time that we have strong leadership at the Cabinet level and I commit to you that I will work with integrity and perseverance to get things done. We have a lot of work to do in the life of this government and I’m ready to go to work. So when it’s time to decide where to place your X today, I ask you to consider what I have to offer and vote Michael McLeod. Also, best of luck to all of the candidates who are running for Cabinet positions today. Thank you.

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