Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've heard a lot about the pipelines and major developments that are going to take place in the North in the next while and I think we can't lose focus. We can continue to point our fingers at the federal government, but I think we have to turn the finger around to say we are also responsible for these developments that are going to take place in the North. I believe this government has a fundamental responsibility when it comes to the management of our wildlife to ensure we not only protect it, but also the traditional way of life for our hunters and trappers to ensure that any major impacts on them, or the areas they harvest, are going to be considered for compensation. We have a responsibility for management of our forests to ensure that we have protection in place, and also so we can develop our forest products in the Northwest Territories to benefit from these major developments.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is time that this government realized that we cannot continue to blame the federal government for the lack of capacity in our communities. It is this government's responsibility to build that capacity, ensuring that the people in our communities are prepared, have the resources and the human resources to deal with the environmental assessment process to deal with the whole pipeline application process, and to ensure that we, as a territory, have the infrastructure and resources in the communities.

I think it is great to have the resources at headquarters, but that's not where the development and impact is going to be felt. It is going to be felt in our communities. It is going to be felt by the residents in our communities and we have to ensure that we minimize that impact through our responsibility as government. We have to ensure that these developments don't have a major impact on our health care system and our education systems, and prepare ourselves to be ready for those developments when they happen.

I think we have learned from the Norman Wells experience. We've learned from the diamond mine experience where we've had to work with industries to develop social and economic agreements and develop training programs to develop the capacity so that we could benefit through the secondary industry of diamonds. We have to do similar things for oil and gas and I think this government has to start developing its own scenarios on how we, as government, are going to be prepared for the pipeline development. Are we prepared or will we continue to blame the federal government for all our errors and problems that we have? I will be asking the Premier questions on this matter later. Thank you.

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