Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to rise today to speak briefly to the very important statements that were made in this House by the Premier, his statement on the new agenda for a new Western Territory and by Minister Antoine, on a vision for society in the western NWT. Mr. Speaker, we are months away from division and the people from the Western Territory, the southern jurisdictions, the business communities and the federal government would like to know with some certainly what type of governance we envision at the territorial level for the people of the Western Territory.

Mr. Speaker, this issue has been of significant interest to me for well over a year. I have written to Caucus and I raise it in the House. One of the fundamental issues to me, Mr. Speaker, if we want a territory to move forward in the unified, united and cooperative way, then one of the key ingredients is going to be to have a strong, central government with clearly articulated powers and authorities so that there is a glue as the Premier said yesterday that will be able to bind the regions and the people of the Western Territory together. Mr. Speaker, in fact, we have been told, I have been at meetings where the aboriginal summit representatives said that the position now held by the government of the Northwest Territories is unclear, it is vague and it is imprecise making it very difficult to make progress at the tables currently where negotiations are underway for inherent right to self-government. I agree.

Mr. Speaker, we know that there are many models on the table before us trying to outline the possible relationships that may exist or can be negotiated between aboriginal governments and the government of the Northwest Territories. It could be government to government, it could be the combined model if you use the constitutional models on the table. It could be a partnership model or it could be a parallel model. Those are labels not clearly defined, but anyone of those are a possibility and subject to negotiation. I do not believe that we can go forward and negotiate with aboriginal governments unless we have a clear sense and are prepared to stand up as clearly as possible to articulate the role and authorities of a clear, central public government and what role they will play in this process. I think everybody will appreciate that. It will be a topic of debate. It will be a topic of discussion, but very clearly. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.