Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have seconded this motion for a number of reasons since the events of last week, Thursday and Friday. I seconded the motion on Friday. Thinking about the vote of confidence for the Premier, I believe that we have to try to be as open and transparent as we can to the people we say we are going to represent and try to do the best for in the communities.

I just want to say that as a Cabinet Member, I believe we are independent-minded people who serve on Cabinet as Ministers. We work with the Premier to do work for the Government of the Northwest Territories and for the people of the Northwest Territories.

As Ministers in Cabinet, we work with Premier Kakfwi. I must say that in the last two years, we have invested a lot of effort and time working and trying to build some stability and credibility in the North. I think we have some movement in a lot of areas. I just want to talk about the partnerships we have been working on very hard with aboriginal governments, as well as the federal government and industry.

The aboriginal governments and the Government of the Northwest Territories have been working as partners in trying a new system of government that is beginning to unfold here in the Northwest Territories. We have worked very hard to strengthen our relationship with aboriginal governments so that we can pursue goals that are similar, shared goals.

The basis of this relationship is trust. With the federal and aboriginal governments, we have established the Intergovernmental Forum to build strong and lasting intergovernmental relationships. One of the most important goals for strengthening our government is to achieve devolution and resource revenue sharing agreements that will provide our governments with the authority and the funds necessary to effectively pursue all of our different mandates that are out there.

Mr. Speaker, I believe we have improved our relationships with aboriginal leaders. I think we have earned trust. We have made significant progress in agreeing on a shared agenda.

Last May, elected leaders of the Intergovernmental Forum signed a memorandum of understanding on principles that would guide the relationship of the parties in the Intergovernmental Forum.

On the critical issue of devolution and resource revenue sharing, leaders endorsed a memorandum of intent, setting out principles, objectives and a process for future devolution talks. This agreement includes a commitment that all parties must seek instructions and appoint negotiators by March 31, 2002. I think this is a very important date to keep in mind, and the magnitude of the progress we have made so far involving a lot of the aboriginal governments. I think there was some success in that. It is not concluded, but we still have a lot of work to do here in this area.

Premier Kakfwi, Minister Handley and I participated with aboriginal leaders and the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs in that historic meeting.

Earlier this month, the Mackenzie Valley Producer Groups and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group signed a memorandum of understanding that would provide for aboriginal equity, ownership in the proposed future Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

Progress has also been made on the settlement of aboriginal rights, self-government arrangements with the Beaufort-Delta, agreements-in-principle, which I announced earlier today, being the latest concrete achievement in this area.

Mr. Speaker, Members of the Assembly, I think we should all look at these accomplishments and support our common vision, Towards a Better Tomorrow. It takes time and a lot of effort to build this kind of trust and confidence. I believe we are at a critical point in the development of this relationship. We need to keep it going. We do not want to see this type of progress derailed unnecessarily.

Mr. Speaker, aboriginal leaders have signalled they have confidence in Premier Kakfwi. I believe in the Cabinet, especially in Premier Kakfwi's leadership. There is trust in him to continue to achieve the interests of the Northwest Territories government.

I must qualify that by saying in talking to a number of aboriginal leaders, there is support and trust. However, it is not a blind support. There are conditions, of course. These conditions are doable and we could work with these conditions. I think we have been doing that. We still have a lot of work to do in this whole area. I would like to say that with the leadership of Premier Kakfwi and working with the Cabinet Members here, we could work and we will continue to work with aboriginal leaders in trying to achieve what they would like to do for their governments and their people. We could do that together with this government.

I seek the support of the Members of this Assembly to also confirm their confidence so that we can continue to try to work for our people to build a good future for the people here for the Northwest Territories with our partners. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause