Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about an issue that has been of some concern to me for some time, the transfer of programs and services from the federal government to the Northwest Territories government.
Since I was first elected in the House, I am fast becoming used to disagreements with the federal government over funding matters. First it was the health billings dispute, which has been ongoing for some time now, and last week we received news from the Minister responsible for Housing about the devastating reduction in social housing programs.
Mr. Speaker, although the circumstances in these cases are different, I believe, ultimately, they will lead to the same conclusion. The federal government is off-loading programs and services on the Government of the Northwest Territories. Like other Members of this House I am concerned about the strategy we have taken to deal with these disputes with the federal government.
As the honourable Member from Mackenzie Delta has pointed out many times, the federal government has a constitutional and moral responsibility to provide these programs and services to aboriginal people. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the honourable Member and believe that we should be aggressively pursuing this with the federal government.
Mr. Speaker, this leads to the larger question of how we handle negotiations with the federal government. I am not satisfied that the agreements we have negotiated in the past have been as good as they should have been. Often, I believe, we have accepted agreements in the past because of our zest to transfer more power to the Northwest Territories. This has been done despite serious shortfalls in the fiscal terms of these agreements.
Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, this is a serious miscalculation. As a good friend of mine recently pointed out, responsibility should not be confused with power. Money is power. Mr. Speaker, in my opinion we should establish a moratorium on any further accords with the federal government until a negotiating framework and a mechanism for analysing any other agreements, is established and reviewed by this House.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I will have more to say about the power sharing arrangements with the federal government, under the new Constitution, in my statement tomorrow. Thank you.
---Applause