Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I want to follow up with the comments I made yesterday in terms of the mortgaging of the Northwest Territories and the interest of oil companies and other resource development, such as mining and potential hydro happening in the Northwest Territories. The Northwest Territories is being looked upon as a wealth of resources. Some are referring to us as the last frontier. Our road now to becoming self-sufficient, independent and working with the federal government in terms of negotiating a resource revenue sharing deal and the devolution of programs, it's been 17 years that I've heard the negotiations for devolution have been ongoing. I think with all that's happening in the Northwest Territories, that might be an advantage for us to have these devolution programs and services come into the Northwest Territories.

I'm saying this, Madam Chair, in terms of our mortgaging, because Mr. Roland said yesterday it's like a family mortgaging a house. If you're going to mortgage a house for the long term, there are certain commitments and there are some uncertainties there. You never know what's going to happen in two years or five years or 10 years. You go with the good intentions of mortgaging a house and you hope you're going to do well. It's a good house; the Northwest Territories has a lot of wealth here. People are after our resources and, as owners of our house here, I'm happy to see that he said we have to put our house in order. We have to build relationships with other organizations.

Like Mr. Menicoche, I was up very early this morning and on my second pot of coffee when I was taking notes of the interest of Thomas Berger and CBC's staff. They were talking about the pipeline and the number of issues that we are facing as a government in terms of dealing with the pipeline and the uncertainty of it for sure coming down. There are no guarantees. The United States government is fiercely pushing that agenda to go through Alaska. I heard that we might be taking a big risk if we don't continue supporting this in terms of waiting another 10 or 15 years. Berger said we should take our time, but I agree with the Minister in terms of putting our house in order to make sure that what is ours stays ours and that we can be self-sufficient.

I like the budget that he brought down. For me it's like Christmastime in February. The Minister is Santa Claus and we're all sitting around asking what are we going to get. At Christmastime, sometimes we're disappointed because we didn't get what we want from the man from the North Pole. He's from Inuvik, so I guess he's up that way.

---Laughter

I was thinking about that and I think that we get a good deal with the resource revenue sharing from the federal government that in time we wouldn't be asking for too many things in terms of governance for our communities. The trust that we have to have in terms of asking the bank to mortgage our place here, they're going to want some securities and that's where the whole complexity of putting this deal together and what we have to deal with in the Northwest Territories.

I think I want to just end on that, Madam Chair. As MLAs in our communities, we were asked to come to Yellowknife and sit in the Legislative Assembly. There are lots of concerns and needs out in our communities that people are asking us to get for them and work on. There is lots of money they see that maybe could be spent elsewhere. There are opportunities. The Mackenzie gas pipeline is a real big opportunity for our people. There are lots of opportunities out there; however, you have to balance them with the environmental and social impacts. Is this really going to be good for us? Economically, I heard that it's viable, prime for economics in industry. However, does that outweigh the needs of the communities, our government, the aboriginal governments and the other interest groups? I'm not too sure. I speak for myself as an MLA, to come and see what we can do for our communities. I think there are ways we could help the communities, listen to the communities, start giving the ownership and the authority back to the communities. Sometimes as government we need to step out of the way, and that's kind of hard sometimes. There are lots of resources there and sometimes we don't get what we want. We see the needs really increase in the communities and they look to us as helping them live a better life. I know some of them tell us we're not their government. You're not our government. Yet we still work with them.

I think this government is very unique because it's the people's government. Sometimes we have to think about that. It's the people's government. You've got a tough job over there. As MLAs we bring concerns to you that hopefully you will satisfy our requests. There are ways to work around it. The pipeline is one; the hydro is another that people are concerned about, but they're also looking at the greenhouse effect. The Kyoto agreement is going to be discussed in a couple of weeks in Ottawa. I heard this one on the radio in Fort Good Hope about the social impacts of the pipeline.

A lot of these issues are going to be discussed on the 15th. I think the Minister's budget address, that I heard yesterday, is positive. I'm happy to see the surplus. I've always said that you have my support to get whatever you can out of Ottawa to make sure it stays here. That, Madam Chair, is what I'd like to comment on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next on the list I have for general comments is Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank Mr. Roland for his budget speech yesterday. I didn't have a chance to shake his hand until this afternoon. Just a few general comments I'd like to make with regard to the budget speech.

I agree in looking at the $300 million debt limit, but I agree that if we can show that we can finance the debt, I think it's a good move to make.

A couple other things here, too, are with regard to the expenditure measures. One of the things I found interesting was how government has prioritized what's important in terms of where spending should go. To me it's going to be important because there are quite a few issues in my riding that I will address during the main estimates review.

With regard to the devolution/resource revenue sharing, I think it's very important that we have something in place. Hopefully the deadline for 2006 will be reached. Let's not forget that the federal government will have their budget speech either later this month or early next month. Depending on that, Madam Chair, I think it's going to be important.

Excuse me, Mr. Pokiak. Unfortunately, we were very close to 2:00 when you started your general comments, but I've been enjoying this so much I didn't take note of the clock. I'm sorry, I should have probably taken a break, but I need to recognize the clock. I will assure you you're name will be at the top of the list on Monday in Committee of the Whole, and we'll make sure you get your full 10 minutes on Monday; and longer, if you like. Sorry about that. Committee, I will rise and report progress, recognizing the clock, the hour being 2:00.

Could I have the report of Committee of the Whole, please.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 19, Appropriation Act, 2005-2006, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Seconder, the honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee. There is a motion on the floor and it is non-debatable. All those in favour? Opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Item 22, third reading of bills. Before we go to orders of the day, I would like to just take a moment to recognize and thank the students from Mildred Hall and Weledeh schools in Yellowknife here for paging for us through the week. It has been a great job that they've done here.

---Applause

Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until February 14, 2005, at 1:30 p.m.

---ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 2:04 p.m.