Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Coming from a small riding in the Mackenzie Delta where it consists of the three very diverse communities of Aklavik, Fort McPherson, and Tsiigehtchic, where one community is isolated and the other communities have some sort of access, but one thing that we do not realize is what has happened to the rural communities in the north as we know them. A lot of these communities were developed during the time of the fur trader. A lot of them are traditionally aboriginal communities.

One thing that you see happening, especially in this government, and the fear that I have changing the structure of government and allowing more seats to Yellowknife is exactly what I see happening in this House in the last three years, where a lot of times, a lot of issues that I have raised, especially in my constituency which consists of a lot of small communities, the people cannot associate with the social and economic problems that we have in our communities. Coming from a large centre and large communities, you do not realize that what you have in programs and services where you can go down the street, pick up the phone, make an appointment at the doctor's office or walk into a hospital, have access to doctors, lawyers, the Supreme Court, any person in a department. Yet for us, in some cases, you have to wait two, three months to see an eye specialist. A doctor may come to your community twice a month if you are lucky to see him while he is there, which is usually one day. If you do not get in that one day, you wait for the next time he comes through. You have to grow up in a small community to realize what you really do not have when you come to Yellowknife.

My biggest fear with what is in the Boundaries Commission Report is the inequity that is going to take place from rural ridings to the restructuring of the political makeup of the new Western Territory.

A lot of times in this House I make motions, I look for support from Members in this House. With a lot of my colleagues leaving from the east, where the majority of the support that I get from this House comes from this side of the House. A lot of times, that side of the House does not have a worry or concern of the social impacts that we face in our small communities because they do not have it here.

There have been a lot of economic booms going on around Yellowknife, with the diamond industry, yet the oil and gas industry in the riding that I represent in the Beaufort Delta was at one time a thriving industry which had world potential for oil and gas, yet nothing has ever been said in this House to develop that economy and also where the aboriginal people in that region want to go.

In the Beaufort Delta, self-government process there is a real, I hate to say this, but the disparity between regions and ridings when it comes to economic opportunities. One thing that a lot of aboriginal groups see by way of negotiating land claims and self-government agreements that it is a way to get away from government and go it on their own. The sad thing to say about this is it has already happened and occurred to our neighbours to the west, in regard to aboriginal groups negotiating self-government agreements and running programs and services on their own.

With the disparity that we see in the west, especially coming from aboriginal communities, that will continue. With the makeup of the House just looking as it sits now, if you took a vote today, there would only be two Members on this side of the House representing small ridings, which would be Mr. Rabesca and myself. Yet in the past, I had five other Members on this side who I could depend on because of the rural concerns. I think that was something that was missed by this commission. This commission only looked at one aspect and that was population. It did not look at the diversity of cultures, inequity in regard to access to government. Also, the process that is in place for self-government negotiations to be able to establish programs and services and have the right to run those programs and services by yourself.

I think the aboriginal groups that have been involved in the Constitutional process have come to a point of not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel to say there is a possibility of us working together and striving for a better Western Territory, yet everything around that process is collapsing because people take it into consideration to let us look at the other option that we have, and that is negotiating directly with Ottawa, for the same programs and services that this Legislature will have the funds from the federal government for. Those dollars that we think we have control of now will sooner or later be controlled by aboriginal governments. It is a serious point and I think people have to realize that we are taking something for granted that was not really recognized by the people in Yukon. I believe we, in the Western Territory, will be stuck in the same dilemma. It may not happen in the next five years, it may happen in the next ten years, but eventually it will happen.

Another point I would like to make is regarding something someone mentioned about how much Yellowknife puts into the western economy. How much money is generated by taxes? How much money has Yellowknife put in by way of jobs? People forget history. The Beaufort Sea in the 1970s and 1980s as well as in the early 1960s was the only economic boom in this territory. A lot of resources and revenues went into building Yellowknife because of that activity in the Beaufort Delta. The thing that I feel despair now about is how we can sit here and argue about court cases and being fair and everything else, yet when it comes to economic opportunities and the social well-being of people, service delivery in our small communities, in some ways you can look at it as what you see in Third World countries. It has come to being a point that it is getting worse then getting better.

In Yellowknife you have paved streets, general hospitals, government buildings, major economic base, do not forget Wal-Mart. When you pay 90 cents for a litre of gas and pay almost $2.50 for a litre of milk, you have to start realizing the cost to access government is not that cheap. Myself, I represent three distinct communities, I represent three distinct governments and two unique aboriginal groups. Somehow you have to try to balance that off by yourself. In issues you relate in this House, they do not have access to walk into a Minister's office, if you are lucky, you can fly down here for $1,200 and go see a Minister, but that is what the cost of access is. That is something that the Boundaries Commission was also supposed to look at. The access in regard to remote communities. If you took the map and chopped it in half, over 50 percent of the new Western Territories will consist of the Sahtu and the Beaufort Delta, in which we have four seats. Is that fair? That is bigger than some countries. Yet you have 10,000 people for four seats. I think that you talk about fairness, equitable distribution and the threat for court action, I say go for it, that is what they are there for. You do not like what they decide, let us take it to the Supreme Court. Maybe by that time aboriginal groups will have self-government agreements and they will also demand in the Supreme Court that they would also like to guarantee to have the government for themselves.