Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like today to address the issue of tax-based municipalities and their involvement in the devolution process. Mr. Speaker, the Premier, in a September 8 press release, said it costs us more to respond to development than we receive in benefits. Further, he said that aboriginal and public governments in the Northwest Territories deserve the dignity of being able to provide the physical and social infrastructure to support growth. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Premier and I, too, hope that, as he spoke about earlier today, he brings back some positive results from his weekend meeting with federal Ministers of infrastructure.

Tax-based municipalities in the Northwest Territories, I assert, would also support this approach as they have recently formed a coalition to study the impact of devolution in their communities. Mr. Speaker, I think something that is not all that well understood across the North is that tax-based communities are required to finance much of their own infrastructure, programs and services through their own tax dollars, supplemented by Government of the Northwest Territories contributions.

Across the country, the majority of Canadians have migrated into large urban areas, into tax-based areas. The Northwest Territories doesn't seem to be much different. Seventy per cent of the population is resident in our six tax-based communities, Mr. Speaker.

Yellowknife's mayor, His Worship Gordon Van Tighem, recently said, when you receive a share of the royalties you also take on a share of the expenses associated with earning those rewards. There really is no free lunch, and I think that's evidenced by a number of residential tax bills in the city that are over $3,000 a year, Mr. Speaker.

Devolution and the sharing of resource royalties are of vital interest to us all. We can be and we want to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. But while there's been a lot of discussion regarding the share of royalties between our government, Canada and First Nations governments, there's been little consideration by us of the involvement of tax-based municipalities. It should be a core principle of this government, Mr. Speaker, that if industry creates growth and generates wealth through royalties, the communities who directly bear the impact should be involved and should receive some of the benefit.

Tax-based municipalities say, with regard to devolution, that they have not been involved, nor represented, nor consulted on this issue. This is not an acceptable approach for our territorial government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause