Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the title of my Member's statement...I am not sure how these things work out or how we title Member's statements, but I am hoping this will be titled "Great Expectations". Of course, Mr. Speaker, I am referring to the Maximizing Northern Employment Strategy that our Premier alluded to in his address to the people of the Northwest Territories.

I, like the people of the Northwest Territories, listened intently as he guaranteed jobs for teachers and nurses, for those of us who were trained in the North or coming to the North. Interestingly, I had a call from a constituent right after the address. She said she was so excited about the Premier's announcement because her daughter is attending university in the south. She had called her daughter and made her aware of the Premier's guarantees and talked to me about how convenient this would be, since they lived in Yellowknife and her daughter could come back here and teach in Yellowknife.

I think it is important that we do not get too far ahead of ourselves. I am not exactly sure what the Premier's commitments and guarantees really mean. I relayed this to my constituent. I think there are still a lot of details to be worked out. I think guaranteeing jobs for teachers and nurses, especially in some of the smaller communities, might not be such a thing. We know there is market demand already, Mr. Speaker.

Guaranteeing support for teachers and nurses in these small communities, or as my colleagues have alluded to many times, guaranteeing adequate housing in the smaller communities for teachers and nurses, I think that would be a thing, Mr. Speaker.

We will wait for details. We are very interested to see how this all plays out, but we are also concerned. We want to make sure that this is not just another job-creation program in the public service, a make-work project, Mr. Speaker. We have seen them before. We know that we have private sector incentives and opportunities for economic development all over the place. Why not partner up with the private sector? I really hope that is the Premier's intention here, to guarantee that we are going to work with the private sector to create jobs for Northerners.

If the Premier and Cabinet have a checklist in their back pocket and they pull it out and number one says "build great expectations", I think they can check that off, Mr. Speaker. Number two should say "deliver a well-thought out plan of action". That is what we are waiting for.

Like the public, I agree the Premier's promises are encouraging. However, like the public, I also hope that the devil is not in the details. Thank you.

-- Applause