Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate Mr. Allen and Mr. Yakeleya bringing this topic to the floor of this Assembly. I think they've done a service for us in the 15th Assembly at this fairly early stage. There are some points that I would like to make, but I should preface first of all by saying that as much as I see this as a necessary and a fascinating part of our work here, I will not be speaking in favour of this particular motion. But I'm certainly interested in the topic and I'd like to address some parts of that.
Mr. Allen in his motion really hit the nail on the head when he indicated that we're just not getting anywhere in the devolution talks. In the 14th Assembly I was a Member here just starting out and I was very encouraged at the time to hear then Northern Affairs Minister Robert Nault say that we're going to engage in a process that would see a meaningful relationship through the aboriginal governments, as well as the territorial and federal government, to share in the wealth that we have in our resources. But equally, and, I think, more importantly, to share in the management and the pace and style of how resources are going to be developed.
Well, that was four years ago, a few million dollars out of the federal government's pocket and a substantial sum out of ours, too, Mr. Speaker, and I don't know that we really have any more on the table for a devolution deal other than I think a framework document that was released late last year. Not much traffic, Mr. Speaker, toward some kind of a program and progress for the Northwest Territories.
So this is a point that I've been looking at and wondering, that is not the only time that we've been sandbagged on this particular agenda. I guess I'm very resigned, Mr. Speaker, to the fact that the federal government has now essentially found a way on about a four or five-year cycle to keep knocking the devolution agenda off the table. We're not going to get anywhere with Ottawa. I really have very little faith in it. We need to find a way, Mr. Speaker, of breaking that cycle of ignorance and avoidance on the part of Ottawa. Somehow I would really like to find a way to get a message into the highest political levels and policy levels -- not just to the government of the day, but all the political parties of Canada who make these kind of decisions -- that it really is time to end this colonialist approach to managing the part of Canada that's above the 60th parallel. It really is time to get away from what I call the benevolent tyranny of the Northern Affairs shop that is very good at sandbagging and keeping us off balance.
---Applause
Hear, hear. Now, the Premier indicated one of the barriers that's against us is in the 1982 deal that says two-thirds of the provinces representing half of the population of Canada have to approve of anything that would look like provincial-like powers for a territory. That in itself is going to be very, very difficult. I guess I see the Northwest Territories of the future, Mr. Speaker, as a place that has somehow achieved the balance and the accords between a public government in this institution and those of the self-governments that the First Nations want to achieve and, indeed, are making significant progress. I also see, Mr. Speaker, an equal place at this table of this federation or alliance, whatever it's going to be, for the communities, for the larger communities that aren't covered or captured in the self-government and land claim areas. That's part of what we're going to look like in the long-term future, Mr. Speaker, from my point of view.
Then we have to look at what this relationship is going to be like with Ottawa. I see it as one that is going to be more autonomous than we have now. It is one, though, that we have somehow wriggled out from under the rock
that Northern Affairs is keeping us under, and we have much more direct-line relationships with the departments in Ottawa. In other words, if we want to do something with our highways or our airports here, we don't have to see if the Minister of Northern Affairs will hold our hand and walk across the block to visit the Minister of Transportation for Canada. That's what's holding us back now. Then these two Ministers can say, well, it's your job, no, it's your job. They pat us on the head and send us home again. Nothing happens. We have to get around this, what I call, barrier that the Northern Affairs program has created and wants to continue for the Northwest Territories.
So I see a special relationship, not a provincial-type relationship. I think the Premier again has outlined some of the big hurdles that we would have to overcome there. Because of our size as a population and economic area, I think it would be in our best interests to maintain a particularly different relationship with Ottawa from the point of view of our financing, our assistance. But if we don't pursue or continue to press for something like that, we're never going to succeed, we're never going to really reach the levels of autonomy and self-destiny that we should be going for.
Right now, we have a big safety net there. The Government of Canada isn't going to let us fail, really. But with the environment that we have now we are not going to be able to succeed. I think that is what we should be trying to do.
I would concur, Mr. Speaker, with I think a couple of comments that have already been made here that this is such a big idea, it is a worthwhile idea, but it is one that needs to be tested very thoroughly with our other partners, with the bigger, broader population of the Northwest Territories. I guess this is principally why I cannot support this motion at this time. It is really something that I would like to see an assembly coming in with a very strong mandate from the electorate, from the leadership of the First Nations and communities, that says yes, go, get this done. Because without that kind of strong signal, we are not going to have a very strong support to take to Ottawa and to the rest of the country for the kind of support we're going to need.
I hope that this discussion can continue and will continue outside of this assembly. I hope that maybe we'll hear some of this kind of discussion at the First Nations assemblies that happen every summer, and around municipal tables and those kinds of places. That is really where the support and idea to get behind this will grow. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can see something placed in front of the entire electorate of the NWT in the way of a referendum. Perhaps even in time for the election of the 16th Assembly in another three and a half years or so. That may be one way of putting this question out there and seeing what the appetite is and getting a sense of the strength and the way we should be approaching this.
Again, I would like to compliment Mr. Allen and Mr. Yakeleya for bringing this forward. I hope it's not the last of this kind of discussion that we have here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.