Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to make a couple of observations on yesterday's federal budget and I share, generally, Mr. Speaker, the disappointment of our Finance Minister Handley in that the North did not figure really at all in this budget. We are an emerging and an important part of Canada and I feel we deserve better.

Mr. Speaker, there are some contrasts in here. The federal government very successfully and very handily has managed to turn the fiscal deficit of this country around. Indeed, I believe it's looking at surpluses totalling $12 billion over the next three years. We, in the NWT, have to consider our options so carefully as we approach our own $300 million debt wall. Relatively speaking, Mr. Speaker, this is a huge contrast and is one that we should be able to strike a better partnership with the federal government on.

Mr. Speaker, another irony is that our own resource development activities which, we could argue, are happening in some part in spite of federal ideas and regulatory frameworks are moving ahead as never before. Our royalties are increasing as these developments mature, but our own revenues are not increasing accordingly. Mr. Speaker, while there is a great surplus at the national level, we, in the NWT, have both a fiscal and a social deficit. The impact is growing in our housing, on our community and transportation infrastructures and in the wellness of our people. We are told there are opportunities for us in this federal budget, Mr. Speaker, but we have come up empty handed in the last couple of years on other opportunities that were before us. The Minister of Finance has mentioned Corridors for Canada. The opportunity, Mr. Speaker, that I would really like to realize someday, is that the NWT is a real part of Canada, earning our fair share of the wealth, paying our way and seeing the North really as part of Canada's just society. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.