Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank all of my honourable colleagues in this House of consensus government to allow me to finish my earlier comments. Mr. Speaker, I again will continue to speak in favour of this motion. I haven't changed while I sat down here and thought about it some more. I just want to be quick in respecting the opportunity to speak the second time to finish my statements.
Mr. Speaker, I really believe this territory, if we become a province, won't be affected by equalization because other provinces still receive equalization formulas and, therefore, we will still financially be able to be in a position
that we are in today. The point I'm making is I don't think we'll be worse off.
Mr. Speaker, the concern sometimes is about population. Well, I don't know if that discussion came up during confederation about PEI's population. They are a very low populous province and nowadays, when you have provinces like Ontario and Quebec, you have them with gigantic populations and you still have very small provinces with populations. Therefore, if population was a basic necessity to the argument, they would be taking provincehood maybe from other provinces out there. I don't think population is a good argument. I don't think it's truly the key.
In my heart I've seen, in my short experience on this world, I've seen us do land claims in other provinces. Could that happen if we were a province? Absolutely. I think we could move forward on that. In my opinion, we just need to get that question out there and force them to either decide: are you going to allow us to be a province or not? If they choose not, well, let's find a new argument to try to convince them another way.
The reality is, I can appreciate the courage of the question and I think we have to ask ourselves why this question hasn't been put forward sooner. I think we need to see what their answer is now. It reminds me of the case of someone not asking a question because they're afraid they're going to say no. If I proceeded my whole life that way, you know, some of us would probably never ask any questions.
I think we need to step forward and stop hiding behind those little excuses. They may be the right answers, those excuses. They may be the facts that are presented for us, but I want to see them in writing and I want to hear Ottawa say that to me.
Some days I often think about the discussion of Quebec. They always talk about how distinct the society is. Today if we proceed forward with this motion this will truly outline the fact that the Northwest Territories is a distinct society. How many provinces have 11 official languages? Not a single one of them. We have only New Brunswick to credit with two official languages. We are a distinct society here in the Northwest Territories. It's time we pull our chair up to the provincial table and sit as an equal, not as somebody at the little kids' table on the side with the other two territories. I'd like to see us on an equal footing with the rest of Canada.
I'd also like to reaffirm, I'd like to see our Premier's voice echoed across Canada like the rest of the Premiers. I believe my Premier needs the strength from this assembly to reaffirm that we support him and we'd like his voice heard. So I want to see that opportunity happen.
Mr. Speaker, I could go on, but really at the end of the day I really see the way this assembly is being held back is that we're almost like an adolescent with a trust fund. We have all these resources and opportunities and I truly see us as a have-territory, as has been echoed by our very prestigious Premier of saying we are a have-place. Until we can unlock that trust fund, until we can open the doors of that reality, the question has to be asked and maybe that day we can face and stare Ottawa down and say we dare you to blink. So today, let's move forward. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Again, thank you, honourable colleagues.