Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Zoe.

Mahsi, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, the Aboriginal Pipeline Group has made substantial gains in terms of ensuring aboriginal people of Northwest Territories will benefit from the proposed pipeline. It is a great example of how cooperation can be successful. As leaders of the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Premier has the crucial leadership role in helping the Northwest Territories work together for the benefit of our territory. Time is of essence, Mr. Speaker. If leaders across the Northwest Territories do not rise to the opportunity and come together to ensure NWT residents receive the benefits of our northern resources, we risk losing out on this historic opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the Premier to be a leader among leaders. Now is the time to join forces. It is the Premier's role to rally the troops. We must all work even more diligently to ensure resource development is to the benefit of the Northwest Territories' residents. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 28 years ago, when the first plan was being made to build the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, Judge Thomas Berger was asked to review the socioeconomic impacts the project would have on the people of the North. After hearing all the facts, Justice Berger recommended that the project be postponed and that a 10-year moratorium on all pipeline construction be put into place. He recommended the moratorium because he recognized the fact that northern aboriginal peoples were not ready to engage the pipeline project. They were not in a position to derive any meaningful benefits from it. He felt, after 10 years, that it would be sufficient time to settle all outstanding aboriginal land claims in the Mackenzie Valley, thereby ensuring aboriginal people a meaningful role in the project when it eventually went ahead.

Mr. Speaker, I regret to inform the House that our federal government has fallen far short of Mr. Berger's recommendation. We have had three times the amount of time Berger gave us and still not all land claims in the Mackenzie Valley have been settled. In that time, we did build a pipeline, the Norman Wells pipeline. As a member of the Liidlii Kue Band Council and a councillor at that time, I remember the experience very well. The Deh Cho Dene didn't have a settled land claim then either, and the projects happened, just like Justice Berger said it would, without meaningful benefits accruing to aboriginal people.

There were promises of benefits, but none of those promises were ever met. First Nations yet again had to deal with broken promises. This must not be allowed to happen again, and I will do everything I can to ensure that this will not happen again. All aboriginal and northern people must receive direct long-term benefits from the construction of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline and access and benefit agreements that are clearly defined in writing, if not cast in stone. Nothing else will do. This is very imperative. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his

statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Menicoche.

Honourable colleagues, mahsi cho for allowing me to conclude my Member's statement. I just want to point out that the North was born on hunting and trapping, and the land provided for us. The animals provided for us and the furs provided us cash. In this modern day and age, the land is still giving us an opportunity to take care of us through the gas, oil and all the resources that are in the North. Here is our opportunity for the land to continue to take care of us, but today we call it resource revenue sharing. I believe firmly that our government has to urge the federal government to say this is a priority for the northern governments. In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, the pipeline we are talking about today must benefit all of us. I firmly believe that. Nothing else is acceptable. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, indeed the news is out about the Northwest Territories diamonds, oil and gas, and our exceptional economic situation is making good copy in southern newspapers. Our economic growth is almost 10 times greater than the rest of Canada, and our employment rates are also breaking all records already without the pipeline. In Yellowknife, we have full employment, statistically speaking, already.

Mr. Speaker, the future indeed looks very bright, but there are many in our communities who are very concerned about the social impact the explosion of booming economy from the pipeline development will bring to the NWT, because, Mr. Speaker, we also topped the statistics on all negative indicators as well. We have an extraordinarily high rate in alcohol and drug abuse. We have out-of-control gambling addictions. We have FAS, FAE, and a high rate of suicide among youths. We have an increasing amount of sexually-transmitted diseases, as well, and in all forms of criminal rate we are at the forefront in these unfortunate statistics as well. Mr. Speaker, I must admit to you that this government has not done enough. We have not prepared people in our communities to be ready to take advantage of the economic prosperity that is to come without crippling impacts that could possibly destroy our communities in the process.

Mr. Speaker, our residents all along the Mackenzie Valley corridor are very concerned about what kind of impact the inflow of thousands of transient workers from the South will have on the cultural and social fabric of our small communities. It is vital that, in all their negotiations and at all tables, the socioeconomic impact of this development project remains at a high level of the agenda. Mr. Speaker, I would like to applaud the Native Women's Association for organizing a conference at the beginning of next month in Fort Providence that will deal...

---Applause

...that will deal with these very issues, and there will be a lot of distinguished aboriginal women leaders who will give us a lot of guidance, and we could do good by listening to what they are saying. I would also conclude by recognizing the very good work done by the Status of Women Council of the NWT.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Ms. Lee, you may conclude your statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I would like to conclude by recognizing the very good work done by the Status of Women Council of the NWT who, in July of 2004, released a report titled Review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Terms of Reference of the Mackenzie Gas Project. It is an excellent report with two very neatly organized tables included in the report that tells us what we need to do, what the mitigating steps are that we could take to get our people ready and to make sure that our people benefit from it in a maximum way. I would just like to say that all the governments at all levels needs to read that and get on with the implementation now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

How long are we going to allow this to happen, to continue?

Mr. Speaker, it is a critical time for our precious territory. We have big problems on the radar screen, a pipeline, more diamond mines, and who knows what next. But we only have one chance to get it right, or before we know it our resources will be gone for good. Our land will be scarred, and all the royalties will be in Ottawa, paying for gun registries and sponsorship scandals, while we beg for a few dollars to teach our children...

...heal our cuts and look after our elders. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member's statement.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may conclude your statement, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, honourable colleagues. It is no secret, Mr. Speaker, I want to see the Mackenzie Valley pipeline happen. I am happy for the Tlicho and the Akaitcho people for having diamonds on their land. Mr. Speaker, I have to wonder sometimes if these resource development projects go ahead and we do not have a royalty sharing deal, who will really benefit and is it worth it.

Do the honourable thing, Mr. Premier, and put the Crown on notice that the stakes are high in the Northwest Territories and we want a share, a fair share of those stakes. Mr. Speaker, resource revenue sharing has been happening a long time in our country, since the 1800s. It's now high time that we get our fair share deal for the Northwest Territories, period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. For the past 130 years, the vast lands of the Northwest Territories have been the treasure chest of Canada, the collateral of the nation, with the riches from our forests, rocks and waters. But over the past decades, Mr. Speaker, four provinces and one territory have been carved out of our boundaries. Today, while we are left with a much smaller geography, we are still blessed with the resources that an increasingly hungry world wants, and we have at least two of these. We have energy and we have minerals, and off in the future, Mr. Speaker, let's look way out there, will be the exploitation of our most precious commodity of all, our vast resources of clean water.

The North is also the centre of some of the world's most progressive moves, Mr. Speaker, in democracy and governance. We are trying to make the best of them right here in this Assembly, as we try to forge new alliances between the indigenous peoples of northern Canada and newer Canadians from other nations. We have been, and will continue to be, the most exciting place to live in Canada, if the dynamics of our politics, our economy and our societies evolve.

Just weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, we heard that Canada has awakened to these factors and is calling for a new vision and a new purpose to be struck in a new national strategy for the North. It has been 50 years since this was done. It is an exciting and encouraging opportunity for us, but we must recognize that this will not happen overnight. Indeed, it will be years before the fruits of such a bold initiative begin to take effect. In the meantime though, our economic chance to make most of this happen is being exploited at astonishing rates with precious little left for us.

Last year alone, Mr. Speaker, almost $2.3 billion in diamonds, gold, and oil and gas was taken from our lands; more than twice the value of all the services of this government, in one year, gone. The royalties stream from this amounted to some $200 million flowing into federal coffers that we have learned are already staggering under an astonishing $9.1 billion surplus. Our share of this, at current levels, about $8 million; $8 million out of $200 million.

Mr. Braden, your time for your Member's statement has expired.