Mr. Chairman, I know that it is a difficult thing to not get everything you want to get, and certainly one of the only advantages that I see is that one should get there even though you have to have unanimity for certain areas, it is the fact that you are there. I do not see us becoming a province for some substantial number of years. We have a lot of issues, here in the Northwest Territories, that have to be reconciled with the various members of the public, whether it be Inuit, Inuvialuit, Gwich'in, and there are a lot of issues out there that we have not resolved yet. As well, our economic base probably would not be able to support moving towards provincial status.
I do not know what is in the future, how long it would be. It could be a long way down the line. I know where we are now, we were not here before the constitutional talks. It has only been in the last year, that we have even been given the ability to sit and talk as partners, maybe not as constitutional partners, but certainly we will at least be there. We are not there with guarantees, but I would think that it would be less likely, that when you go towards dealing with exactly what the representation will be, it is probably 25 percent better than we were yesterday, before the constitutional arrangement as it is now.
I would like to tell you, certainly, that if you wanted to have 100 percent, I suppose, to ask for equal status in everything, in terms of becoming a province, and through the last dying days that the discussions were taking place, we did not even have that. It may very well be, that because the aboriginal people have not settled on the number of Senate seats, it maybe because of the population across Canada, they will have even more seats than we do. That is yet to be determined.
At this time, I will tell you when we were sitting at the table, there was an agreement that, at least, when the discussion was taking place, that we would be there. I cannot guarantee you anything, and I cannot say that we have everything, and I believe that sometimes it is better to be there during the discussion stage to determine that. I am sure that, in the future, the leaders will become stronger and stronger and more able to represent the territory. I would also like to say, that among a number of you, this is considered an interim government, until other things have been resolved as well. We are not all totally supportive, this is a government that is going to be here representing all the people, particularly in the western part of the Northwest Territories. This struggle is still going on. I see provincehood not in near future at all, I see that done the line, and I believe that. I have the confidence that as the leadership becomes more firm and more progressive, we will have to leave that for people to deal with. At this point in time, if you are asking me, if that can be changed, no it cannot be, because there is not the willingness in all the provinces to do so. Thank you.