Thank you, Madam Chairperson. One of the common themes up and down the Mackenzie Valley when Justice de Weerdt made his ruling was that we have to come up with a political solution. These are items of constitutional change for the Northwest Territories that have to be decided by politicians, elected people and the people. That is the reason why this committee motion is in place. No one needs a history lesson around this, some have made a livelihood on the development of a constitution for the past 20 years. Politicians of the day have all tried, including the leaders of the aboriginal governments, to build a constitution that truly reflects all the people's needs in the Northwest Territories. What people have said up and down the valley is that we need something else. We total disagree with Bill 15 but the judge has said you have to do that. We need something to accompany that. Bill 15 is legislation. You need companion legislation. You need something else that is as powerful as that to convince us that you want to work with the people of the Northwest Territories to build a constitution. That is the reason this committee has brought this motion forward. You cannot leave this up to the 14th Assembly.
There is nothing stopping the 13th Assembly from doing this to show the people in the Northwest Territories that they are committed to building a constitution and a new Western Territory. The government are the only people that can do this. They have the resources, they are mandated to bring forward legislation. We cannot bring forward an ordinary Member's bill. Only the government can action this request by the people. I will hear soon whether the government decides to action the request by the people or reject it. I will hear that soon when the Premier speaks, but I would encourage, for once, to listen to what the people are saying and action the request. It is a process that involves all the people in the Northwest Territories. Some will say, I know that already, and it is too costly. It is going to cost money. Well it is going to be far more costly to do nothing. Far more costly.
You will get such division, so much mistrust, that when you talk to the aboriginal governments there is no way they are going to work with you unless you show some good faith. Madam Chairperson, one of my jobs through this process was to consult with the aboriginal leadership, that was my job, to phone every one of them to see if this was an acceptable solution and they have all said yes, it is acceptable. The Aboriginal Summit is going to meet tomorrow as well, to discuss this, and they made it very clear that they are surprised when the Premier mentioned through the media this week that this intergovernmental forum is now taking the place of constitutional development. No one knew that. This is the forum, this is the process. It you are going to develop a constitution, you cannot do it on an ad hoc basis. This is the first time in our history that we are actually putting a timeline, you are getting people to buy in and they are trying to meet it. So with that I would be interested in hearing the government's comments as well as other Members, but my time is up.