Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a short comment on my position on this motion. I have supported the introduction of this motion in this House because I do believe it is a topic worthy of discussion and my honourable colleague from Inuvik Twin Lakes has been working diligently to advance this item. I thought it was a good idea to have it out here and to get feedback from the Members and to get our position known to the people and parties outside of this assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I will not be supporting this motion as it is written in terms of what it is asking. I believe firmly and I am sure that we, as a territory, will evolve into a province. I think we can make very good arguments that the discussions we are having on land claim settlements and self-government negotiations, resource revenue sharing negotiations and negotiations on devolution are all different segments that are leading us to that end result. It may have different names, it may be a different process, but I believe we are taking steps to garner more province-like responsibilities and control from Ottawa and that eventually we will get there.

I think though the reason I am not able to support this motion is my sense is that there is lack of consensus in the Territories about whether or not this is one we would like to put on our territorial agenda. We do have a lot of very heavy items on our territorial agenda and I am not prepared at the moment to ask the Premier and this legislature to push this item to the forefront.

Secondly, I must tell you that I have not heard a lot of interest among the people of Range Lake -- maybe it will change after today and I will get a slew of phone calls from everybody demanding provincehood -- in my conversations with my constituents as this being on the top of the agenda.

A third reason is it's quite functional and practical. That is, I do not believe we have enough population in this territory to be able to function as a province yet. I am not sure if we are looking for a territory of 200,000 people or something. I don't know what is the magic number that would warrant provincehood, but there is a need for a critical mass of population size. One of the prime aspects of provincehood is there has to be an adequate tax base for that government to function on its own resources. I understand with our resource revenues and such, that we may be able to do that, but I don't believe, given the population that we have now, that there will be enough of a tax base for us to warrant that.

I do believe all the issues that are being brought up by Mr. Allen and the seconder of the motion, Mr. Yakeleya, are very valid and those are questions we debate and contend with on a daily basis. I do believe that we are heading toward provincehood or something very much like it. But at this time I will not be supporting the motion to ask the Premier to put this on the forefront of his agenda. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.