Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about partnerships. Mr. Speaker, one of the current buzz words everyone hears is partnerships. Although it may seem like jargon, the 13th Assembly is committed to the idea behind the word. Committed to finding ways to let the various parties, the GNWT, the municipalities and the aboriginal governments have a voice and a role to work together rather than against each other, to recognize current and future common interests. Historically, government has not been great about bringing all parties to the table. In Yellowknife, government has often talked to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation or to the municipality, but seldom to both. Decisions were made which made some people unhappy or left them in the dark.
Mr. Speaker, the big push of this Assembly has been to recognize the need for partnerships, to encourage greater sharing of authority and responsibility through community empowerment. One of the first steps was to get public government and self-government working together on the Western Constitutional Process. There is a more local and a more recent example of how this could work in Yellowknife. I am talking about the process to appoint an administrator for the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board. I am pleased to see both Yellowknife City Council and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation were consulted. Mr. Speaker, nothing was imposed. The territorial government, the municipality and the first nation reached agreement on how to get the work done and who should be hired to do it. Everyone was involved and a good decision was made. This is one small but important step in building the kinds of partnerships we need, partnerships based on trust and working together. I hope this will serve as an example for other departments and communities. Thank you.
-- Applause