Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my introduction, l'd like to speak a bit about when we first got elected and first entered this Chamber in early January of 2000. In my opening remarks to my colleagues and to people of the Northwest Territories as a relatively unknown, that while I had served many years first in the capacity for the Mackenzie Delta, I still remain committed to that opening statement. I came in knowing that I would never make changes, but only influence changes as we progressed in our evolution. Certainly, like everybody else, I am really proud and very happy to have represented the riding of Inuvik Twin Lakes, a new riding, but one which consists of many different ethnicities, a very large disparity in the social economics in my riding and I have stated that many times. As Ministers, we don't have the ability quite often enough to express the way our ridings are treated, but certainly and hopefully the way things have developed over the last four years, my riding got as much respect as others.
Mr. Speaker, I'm notoriously known to be very quiet and I want to say that I am a better listener than a speaker. I have listened to the constituents across the Northwest Territories and I have done that through a lot of community visitations. I have sat face to face with community leaders, with community constituents who have had serious questions about housing, about justice, about youth, about the high cost of public utilities and, again, how we should deal with issue promises, and many other portfolios I have had the pleasure of representing on behalf of other Ministers.
As I quote my colleague from Tu Nedhe that I am "a man of action, a man of few words," and I would like to say that I have done it well. Also I would like to talk about some of the areas where we have worked together collectively, and I want to quote a bit of an excerpt from the Inuvik Drum, October 2nd, in saying that "and may it point out that the consensus government does not work very well for Inuvik. We can hope that everything will work in the spirit of cooperation and consensus but the territorial government has not been the best example of that. Inuvik has sat on the outside for 15 years without any capital funding." Mr. Speaker, when I talk about teamwork, I include my honourable colleague from Inuvik Boot Lake, and certainly at the beginning of this Assembly, Inuvik was not treated fairly and I can sincerely agree with a lot of the comments raised by the small communities which always had the problem of how capital should be shared across the North and how our priorities should be set.
I want to say that I am pleased that in my short term I have had the privilege of standing with eight new Members for the 14th Assembly, that Inuvik in the last four years has reached the pinnacle, the pinnacle that is in excess of $60 million in new capital investments in our small town. They very well deserve it. That included the new hospital, young offenders facility, the repaving of the airport runway, and many new housing developments including new land developments that were well needed and required.
Mr. Speaker, I am not here to take the credit. I think it involves the Assembly, and the Minister is just one of six privileged Members to be able to sit down and help reach some decisions. I certainly want to talk a bit about the importance of the Members across the hall here that offer questions on where we are going with policy development and how we should meet the growing demands of all constituents. I too have taken a lot of Christmases of not being home which I am not afraid to say today that I feel privileged that I could not only serve my constituents but the constituents across the Northwest Territories.
Also, I want to commend the mentorship I have received in this House from my honourable colleague, Jim Antoine, who mentored me in my early beginnings and still today, has a profound impact on the way I present myself in this House and across the Northwest Territories.
There is a gentlemen in this House as well that I want to say had profound effect on myself in learning the procedural process and that is my esteemed colleague from Nunakput, Minister Steen, who I claim is the dean of rules and procedures, and we learned over the course of our short tenure here to respect his invaluable assistance and knowledge.
In the absence of Minister Handley, I want to say that because of his eloquence, being able to stand up and share in the joy and smile a lot and, again, as I recall one important question was raised by the Member for Deh Cho, and asked what he was going to do about the buffalo roaming the town he said well I hope that now that winter is coming that the buffalo will leave their urban settings and move back into the wilderness. So those are things you remember as a jovial part of our work.
Certainly, I have sat through many meetings across the Northwest Territories and they often ask me what Michael Miltenberger is like to work with and I said that he is our in house political scientist and I have a lot of respect for Mr. Miltenberger because he has often given us a lot of excellent advice on how we should deal with situational problems often raised in this House.
Mr. Ootes, again, my colleague to my left, fortunately we both share one thing in common and that is we are both hearing impaired so I am glad he can hear in his right ear and I can hear in my left so we often have to pull off our ear pieces and talk to one another, and when Mr. Antoine is up with his standing committee with his staff we want to reconfigure his seating arrangements so we can have a few extra things to see. Only Mr. Antoine will know what I am talking about.
So everyone has valuable input and I'll save the best for last and I want to personally give my quiet and share in my quiet respect for the Premier. Again, I have sat for four years relatively quiet, throughout a lot of deliberations, but it is only those who have the privilege of sitting there and watching him guide the deliberations, the discussions and coming out to some conclusion, that that respect is certainly something I wanted to talk about today.
Mr. Speaker, I hope I didn't miss anyone here. I wanted to say in my concluding remarks that I had the privilege as a young adult to gain a lot of experience. I had also achieved a lot as a young man, in four short years, Mr. Speaker, and I am glad the chair or the Speaker would change seats because Mr. Krutko would know what I am talking about as an athlete. Careers are very short in athletics and they are also very short in politics. We know that, we are at the vulnerability of our voters and I want to say in concluding, it has been a real privilege to represent this small riding, but not only that, it is also a privilege to work with all of the advocacy groups across the Northwest Territories and with those who continue to pursue excellence. Excellence in the local forum and without doubt, many of us will pursue that.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate everyone who is going to be departing, and I know from our side there will be three departing Members, which I will thoroughly miss, and I certainly want to say to them that sincerely I wish you more future endeavors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause