Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk today about my priorities for the coming weeks. I hope this will be of benefit to my colleagues and my constituents, the people of Yellowknife Centre.

Let me begin by saying that we live in a time of change. Our task here is to help our communities manage the changes that will come from government cut-backs, division, and community empowerment. Given the situation, I am very concerned about the future of Yellowknife. Yellowknife is generally regarded as a have community. That means it is a ripe target for cuts. Many will be necessary and we must accept our share. However, I fear this government's agenda for change may dictate that my constituents shoulder a sustained burden over a longer period than any other community.

Yellowknife faces cuts after all on three fronts, not just from the deficit, but also from the devolution of power to local governments, and from division which will hit very hard over the next three years. I fear that no other community will see such reductions in the level of government during the countdown to 1999 and beyond, and government whether we like it or not is a fundamental component of every local economy in the North.

Mr. Speaker, let me clarify my position here. I support the need to balance our budget. I support the devolution of power to the communities, I support division of the Northwest Territories and the creation of Nunavut. However, I am going to be cautious about measures that hurt my constituency. Community empowerment, for example, is a measure that, to me, is not yet well thought out. It takes jobs out of Yellowknife, potentially, without guaranteeing benefits to other communities. I do not think it meets our goal of devolution, I will speak to this and other issues and policies as the session continues.

For now, let me conclude with this thought, our job is to ensure that the changes we make here benefit all northerners, the includes the people of Yellowknife. My job is to make sure Yellowknifers are not forgotten or taken for granted in this difficult period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wrote my Members' statement about 5 o'clock this morning, I had my lap top there and I must admit it was a lot more interesting then. I have amended it somewhat.

I was elected by and am accountable to the people of Hay River/Enterprise and the Corridor. In turn, on behalf of my constituents, along with my colleagues, elected a Premier and Cabinet who are accountable to the Ordinary Members and the people of the Northwest Territories.

Yesterday, in the Premier's Sessional Address we heard much about working together with the ordinary members, then much discussion took place in committees as a whole about the changes to the capital budget. We were told by more than one member of Cabinet that, perhaps, communication was faulty and was not what it should have been with the Ordinary MLAs, but "we are very busy, we need to let managers manage, and they won't have their hands tied."

Mr. Speaker, I submit to you that a member of this house finding out on the street, after the fact, that a significant project in their community has been deleted from the capital budget is worse than faulty communication. I would remind the members of Cabinet in FMB that each and every member of this House got here by winning the confidence and respect of their communities and constituents and is entitled to the respect of that position.

The new Members that were elected to this House a year ago who now constitute most of the Ordinary Members, gave up jobs, positions in their community and all the comforts of home, to come here and serve their own constituents in a meaningful way.

We may be new to this level of politics and we are on a fast learning curve, but, I assure you, we are not stupid. MLAs are not the community leaders, mayors, chiefs, that Minister Thompson referred to taking direction from yesterday. We are not the advisors to the Premier who sit on the panel on the economy and we are not a special interest group to be consulted with at the pleasure of Cabinet.

We are your peers, who respectfully chose you, the more experienced members to hold positions of departmental leadership. We are told continually that, in terms of involvement, we have far more input into decisions that we would have had in previous governments, and agreed, the capital budget is not a huge amount of this government's budget. However, I am more concerned with the fundamental principals of the role of ordinary members.

Mr. Speaker, seeking unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

What is the point of the hours, days, weeks spent in committee meetings in the budget approval process if cabinet/FMB has latitude to amend it? What is the value of the increased involvement? If this extensive consultation was required to arrive at a plan, should not any be required to amend it?

The issue of communication surrounding the altering of the capital plan is not an isolated situation or concern. Communication with all members of this House is the cornerstone of effective leadership. We entered into this house on the premise of working together, not wasting time taking adversarial positions for the sake of being adversarial. However, this is a two way street, and this respect must be reciprocal, it is the rule of do unto others.

If members of Cabinet should forget about when they were ordinary members and how they wanted to be involved and treated, a very vivid and life like reminder may come to pass. I suggested to one Minister yesterday, partly in jest, that if ordinary members input into decision making is not taken seriously and we are the last to find out things relative to our constituents and communities as an MLA undermining our credibility, I think that given the large number of chairs in this assembly, we should prop mannequins in all of those chairs, rename the Cabinet a benevolent dictatorship, increase their pay and pension accordingly, go home, and get on with our lives.

I know that this particular crop of ordinary members have great potential for working with this Cabinet for the benefit and betterment of our Territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today is in regards to the northern accord process and also the whole confusing circumstances that we find ourselves in the North in regards to the diamond industry and, also, in regards to the oil and gas industry in the public and general.

In 1988 there was an agreement signed between the federal government and the government of the Northwest Territories to start negotiating the northern accord to transfer oil, gas and mineral authority to the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, that has been eight years in the works, to date nothing has been concluded. There is talk about adding new initiatives to the Accord which a lot of aboriginal groups and interest groups especially in ... (inaudible) ... and environment have a say in the matter. Yet, until today, nothing has been concluded.

In June 1985 there was a negotiation session which was held in Calgary between the aboriginal groups and the Government of the Northwest Territories. At that time, there were two positions on the table. There was a draft document which was being negotiated, and to date this government has agreed that they will do a consultation process to restart the process.

The question that I will be asking later to the Honourable Premier, is that he says a lot of revenues and resources have been spent on the process, yet here we are today at deadlock between the diamond industry, the Aboriginal groups, the two governments that do not know who has jurisdiction over what, and that basically there has to be some way of resolving this issue and basically putting it to rest once and for all. It has been a long process, it has been eight years, in which nothing has been done to date. So my question will be raised later on in the house with that. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to make some comments about resources and our attitudes towards them as a Member of this Legislature.

We know that the north is full of resources, but we have yet, on the national or even territorial scale, been able to commit to measuring and assessing the total richness of the resources we have at hand. We have as well, yet, to show you commitment to showing the appreciation we should have for the richness we have for our own cultures, and our own histories, and our own language that are with us still today. And I say that because I have some concerns about certain developments recently.

For instance, what does it mean when the native women of the Northwest Territories forgo looking into their own rich cultural, aboriginal history and language, and choose instead, in large numbers, to go with a colonial name of Northwest Territories. I challenge our youth, our women, to look at themselves and tell me and tell the rest of us in the North who they are. Later this afternoon, I will table a motion from the Sahtu Dene Metis Assembly, that this summer passed a motion support of retiring the name Northwest Territories and committing to working on a process to come up with a new name for a new Territory that will come into existence in 1999. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a constituent of mine who is temporarily living in Yellowknife, attending school here, Flory Laurence.