Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say I'm pleased with the outcome of the recent negotiations that the Premier and Deputy Premier had down in Ottawa speaking with, of course, the Prime Minister and respective Ministers.

I just wanted to speak to a few things. We all know that our formula financing is very old, Madam Chair. I can say about 30 years old and I'm glad that there is some appetite in Ottawa to say yes, you as the NWT are an important part of Canada and, yes, you do have a base in which to control your own destiny and futures. Here's a way of doing it; by loosening up the formula financing agreement, giving us this floor base that the Premier speaks about. That's a good thing for us because then we can start looking at some tax efforts that can raise some extra revenue for us. The next logical step is going to be the huge step to say let's generate tax and revenues from our lands and our resources. That's the next huge step that we have to do.

I still believe that, yes, in the year 2005, we're planning on another northern leaders' conference and we are still going to have to use that as a lobbying effort. We even may have to all go down to Ottawa. We've talked about that time and time again. I believe that worked to some effect. I think it was the 12th or 13th Assembly that actually went down when they were bringing the Constitution home to Canada. Because of that effort, we were able to get aboriginal rights recognized in the Constitution before it was all voted on by the provinces.

I have a few other concerns. I'll bring it up right now and the Premier can address them for me. Can the Premier assure our northern leaders and our First Nations partners that we, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, are not going to interfere with the opportunity to devolve or take responsibility for their lands and resources? What I mean by that, Madam Chair, is that our aspirations are the same as the aspirations of aboriginal groups and now they're saying, well, what's going on; why is the government speaking on our behalf. In that sense, what are the Premier's plans in order to address that? We don't want to, of course, weaken our position. We want to have a nice united front as we approach Ottawa and say yes, we're ready for the next step and we're united. So how is the Premier going to broach that subject?

As well, I believe one of my colleagues brought up the question should we be lobbying other political parties federally. Is there benefit in doing that to lobby these other parties and ask will you help us lobby Ottawa as well for our aspirations and goals? Thank you, Madam Chair.