Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been in office 16 months now. We took office facing a very difficult and demanding agenda. We are a third of the way through our term and we have 25 months to go until division. The budget and the deficit reduction program has consumed a lot of our time and we only have one year left to implement our next priorities, then, a year left to accomplish that. Our deficit elimination program is underway and, hopefully, under control and seems to be working baring any unforeseen disasters.

I have taken some time to sort out what seemed to be some priorities for the people of the NWT and for myself. There are many, many issues and sometimes the number of issues seems insurmountable. All are very important. But the priorities for me now, with 780 days left until the two new territories are created, division is certainly an area that I feel that we all need to concentrate on. In the division area, there are issues like formula financing, division of assets, GNWT staff employment, and ongoing east/west relationships among some of the issues.

Then, of the other major issues that are of great importance to me, is job creation. This includes the student employment program. Another item is tackling our social, health, and education programs which always appear to be gigantic, the difficulties that we seem to face there. Another issue is creating a more effective and responsible territorial government. In that I see improving employee morale as a necessity and sorting out the affirmative action policy. Mr. Speaker, these are four major issues that I think we need to concentrate on for the next couple of months and two years in office. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.