Thank you, Mr. Erasmus. The Member for Amittuq, Mr. Evaloarjuk.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank, first of all, the people who put me back into the House as their Member for the Assembly. Had it not been for them, I would not be able to stand here today.

Back in 1975 until 1978, I participated as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, and it's very good to see my old colleagues from yester years and I am glad to be here again.

I would also like to thank my family; my wife, in particular. For the last 27 years, beginning in 1968, I have been travelling extensively. I reviewed this and there were times when I was away from home for as long as three months and we had small children at the time. Many of my children are adults, and it was for them and my wife that I did this work, and I appreciate the support they've given me.

---Applause

Thank you. The Member for High Arctic, Mr. Barnabas.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to congratulate you on your election, as well as passing my congratulations to our new Premier, Don Morin, and all the new Members of Cabinet selected yesterday. I look forward to working with all of you as MLAs.

I would also like to express my deep gratitude to the people of Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay who voted for me. I would like to assure all the residents of the High Arctic constituency that I will do my very best to represent everyone. I am very much looking forward to working hard as your MLA on the important issues which were raised during the campaign.

I also look forward to visiting the communities in my constituency as soon as possible and talk about the important work ahead of us. I also want to express my special thanks to my wife, Susanna, for her support during the campaign and for being with me during orientation and swearing-in recently. I also want to thank my children: Robert, Marie, Paingut and my other daughter Lynn. I would also like to thank my father, my mother, my in-laws, Tommy and Bertha, and all my relatives in Arctic Bay. I also want to thank my hard working campaign manager and official agent, Daniel Aola, for the good job he did.

Mr. Speaker, I also wish to give my personal thanks to the former Dean of this House, Mr. Ludy Pudluk, Dora, his wife; and their family, for 21 years of devoted service to this House and for being an inspiration to me. I have learned a great deal from him. In his farewell speech to this Assembly on June 14, 1995, Mr. Pudluk gave some wise advice which I would like to repeat today.

"Mr. Speaker, I have noticed when they are first elected Members can be good friends and help support each other. However, I have seen, more than once, after they spend time as legislators, they become enemies. People are not electing us to become enemies. They are electing us to work together. We are expected by our people to work together, help each other and develop the North, not to make enemies."

Mr. Speaker, this is very good advice for me from the previous Member for High Arctic and the longest-serving Member in this House. Mr. Pudluk was a Member of this House for a long time and I will try to follow, which I think we should all try to follow.

---Applause

Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Hay River, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Kivallivik, Mr. O'Brien.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, wish to congratulate Mr. Morin on his election to Premier and also yourself, Mr. Speaker, as well as all the new Ministers we elected yesterday. I wish to give a special thanks to my family and friends for all their support during the campaign and, most importantly, to the people of Kivallivik.

My election and my victory was somewhat bittersweet. In the middle of my campaign, my biggest supporter passed away, my father. I would like to say thank you to him for his support. I know he's watching over me.

In closing, a special thanks to my children, Jaren and Kelsey for all their support, and my apologies for being away so much during the campaign. Matna, mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Yellowknife Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

(Translation) Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to congratulate you on being elected the Speaker. You have been in the position before, you are not new to this position and we rely on your direction. Congratulations on your position.

Congratulations to the Government Leader, Don Morin, on his appointment. It's hard to say congratulations in Slavey, so I'll say it in English. You also know the business of the House because you've been here before. I would like to congratulate the ones who have been Ministers before and the new Ministers as well.

We have already promised each other that from now on we will work together. I would like to thank my constituency: Nahanni Butte; Trout Lake; Jean Marie River; Wrigley; and, Fort Simpson. I would like to thank all the people who elected me and have allowed me to return to this position. (Translation ends)

saying that I had zero votes and I was leading by a little dotted line. After a while somebody in the crowd suggested that we should take a vote in the room and phone it in. Winning by acclamation, Mr. Speaker, was a gift from my constituents. It means to me that I have to work just as hard in this Assembly as I did in the last, or even better, and I am committed to that. It is a great mandate. For that, I would like to thank everybody in my constituency.

The biggest thank you and recognition is to my family: my wife, Celine, for her strength and support; to my daughter, Melaw; and my sons, Denezeh, Sachey and Tumbah; as well as to my father and my extended family. Mahsi.

I would like to thank the Members of this Assembly for the confidence that they showed by electing me to this Cabinet. I will continue to follow the teachings of my elders into the position by being fair and open and listening to everyone, as I have learned as a leader in the communities. One of the things that I've learned, Mr. Speaker, is that as a community leader, you develop a lot of patience by listening to people. This, I will try to do in this Assembly.

To the incumbents who did not succeed in coming back here, I would like to thank you all for the last four years that I have worked with you. I have to say that you have contributed to the people in the North. For that, I would like to thank you.

(Translation) I would also like to thank all the people in the communities. We are elected to be sitting here for the next four years, and I promise to work to the best of my ability with all of you. There was one elder who had written who told me at one time, if you work on something there are a lot of things that you're not going to agree with but, if you work hard on it and work well with the people, everything will come out in the end.

Right now, I would like to promise you again that I will work to the best of my ability for the next four years. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you. Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Nunakput, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. The Member for Natilikmiot, Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, my colleagues. First of all, I would like to congratulate the Honourable Don Morin for being chosen as leader of this government, and you, Mr. Speaker, as being Speaker for the next three years and a half, and all those candidates who were successful in being selected for the Executive Council of this government, and all those people who ran and were not successful. I know you will all put all your effort into making this government a better government and the system a better place for all the people of the NWT.

Mr. Speaker, I have never done this publicly before, but I would like to thank my natural mother who passed away when I was too young to get to know her. I would like to thank her. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my father who passed away -- my natural father -- when I was six years old. I never really got to know either of them. I know they are up there somewhere where there are no restraints.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my wife, Celine, for her support during the past six years when I have served as a Member of the NWT Legislature; my children; my stepfather who is now up there sitting in the public gallery. He taught me three basic principles of life: He told me to know when to hold back. He also told me to know when to go forward. He also told me when to retreat. I live by those three principles that he taught me.

Mr. Speaker, whenever there was a time for collaboration and cooperation between the family, between the people of this particular jurisdiction, the time is now. Mr. Speaker, whenever there was a time to seek wisdom from the elders, from the public, the time is now.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote some quotations from a very famous man by the name of John F. Kennedy, when he first became President. Whenever there was a time to quote something like that, I think the time is now. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." I think we should remember that in these difficult times. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ningark. The Member for North Slave, Mr. Rabesca.

Mr. Speaker...(English not provided)...opening remarks. I would like to thank the people of the North Slave riding to elect me back here again after being absent for the last 20 years. I served in the Legislature back in 1970 to 1975. When I first ran back then, I guess I promised them that I would be speaking my own native language to make my opening remarks. I did that back then when we never used

interpreters at that time, but I was fortunate enough to speak my own native language just for brief moments at that time.

Now I would like to do that again, and these are just my own written comments that I would like to make regarding congratulating the new Premier and the outgoing Premier who served for many years and who had a good relationship with the Dogrib people within my constituency. Certainly, like the rest of my colleagues, I would like to congratulate Sam on being re-elected to the Speaker's Chair again, and also the new Cabinet Ministers being selected to this Assembly. I was fortunate enough to be one of the Members to be able to elect the Premier. How I voted was because the people within my riding wanted me to vote for a particular person that they wanted to be voted in. Including the Cabinet Ministers, I think I did the very same thing too because I promised them that I would be able to vote for the Cabinet Ministers of their choice. I don't think they got them all in there, but I think they got the majority of people who they wanted on the Cabinet. I think they all got voted in.

Now I would like to make that brief remark in my own native language.

(Translation) I wish to thank the four Dogrib communities for having elected me as their MLA for the next three and a half years. Today, we are to express our interest in various committees. I am very much interested in sitting on the Standing Committee on Resource Management and Development. I would have the opportunity to focus on economic development programs and services. We are interested in delivering and initiating our own economic development programs in all four of our communities. This would enable us to exercise independence financially in the long term.

We have interest in renewable resource programs. Forest fires and their effect on our land and animals have become serious issues for us because it affects our ability to hunt and trap. We would like to find ways to reduce forest fires in our area.

I am also interested in sitting on the Standing Committee on Infrastructure. I am interested in examining policies, administration and expenditures in the departments, and reviewing the performance of the departments. We want to ensure that departments are delivering the programs and services equitably across the Northwest Territories, that expenditures do not exceed costs allocated, and that a deficit does not accompany division of the Territories.

I have a high interest in who is getting hired, not only in the North, but in my area. I don't know two people who got hired from outside the Territories who have retired in my Dogrib area.

I'm interested in safety in the workplace. Transportation is another concern we have. The road between Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife has taken many lives over the years. Mining is an area of concern for our people. There is much discussion about benefit packages and the affirmative action hiring policy, but then BHP does not expect that an aboriginal person can be a senior manager within a period of 10 years.

I'm interested in sitting on the Standing Committee on Government Operations. I'm interested in those issues that have a broad impact, government wide. I'm interested in the budget and fiscal framework of all departments and other related public boards and agencies. I'm interested and want to be part of the operation that ensures that this government abides by the Deficit Elimination Act. This act is supposed to come into force April 1, 1996, and the budget is supposed to remain balanced for three years. I don't want this government to force a deficit on the two new governments when division takes place.

---Applause

Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 6, Members' statements. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Kakfwi.