Thank you very much, Mr. Yakeleya. I have Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Madam Groenewegen. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To set a course for the future, whether it's a short or a medium or a long-term one, it really helps me to get a sense of where we could be if I'm able to see the future and then know that I'll be able to take action on the future. This is the opportunity that I think we've been given here. It's a huge opportunity for ourselves and for our sister territories to really be able to envision and shape and set our sights on who we want to be, where we want to go, how we want to work and understand each other, and how we're going to set our relationships up with the rest of Canada and the rest of the world. So it really is a great opportunity. Probably a better than once-in-a-lifetime chance for a part of Canada to say here is where we want to go and to have the attention of the senior level of government and I think, along with that, of our partners in the other provinces.

So I embrace this but, at the same time, I don't want to oversell it either, to myself or anybody else. This isn't as if we're getting a blank cheque and we can write it ourselves. In outlining these objectives and these visions and the dreams along with that, we've got to realize that we'll have to take responsibility and accountability for what we do in order to get there. Not attaining the kind of things we might want to do is going to be as much our fault or our problem as anybody else's. Really this is an exercise for us to leave the nest, if you will, leave the den, go out into the real world, if you will. In so many ways for the time that we've been the Northwest Territories, we have not been living the same style or have the same kind of conditions or opportunities placed on us that the rest of Canada does. We really have a lot of artificiality here. I would really like to get away and get out from underneath it and this is a chance to say to ourselves and the rest of Canada, here's how we'd like to do it.

Mr. Chairman, seeing the future and being the future is my way of positioning this. What I'd like to do for the next few minutes is give you some snapshots of where I would like to be if I was writing a report on the Northwest Territories 10 years from now.

So here's a report from the year 2015. The Northwest Territories today is a part of Canada that is free of the Northern Affairs Program...

...and the old-fashioned, patronizing, colonial mandarins. There are a few of them in Ottawa who I think are the real barriers to us moving along. We've had decades of long-distance rule, Mr. Chairman, and on one hand I tend to think if I was in their shoes I'd say, my gosh, after all these years of paying money into that big pink part of the map we're finally getting a return, do you think I'm going to let any of it go? No. I want to see the coffers of Canada finally repaid by that northern sinkhole up there. But now we're on the verge of becoming an enormously rich contributor to the rest of Canada. Is either side fair to the other? I don't think so and that is why we need to cut that connection, get rid of that connection, this Northern Affairs Program. Locate those jobs, not only those jobs, that's really, Mr. Chairman, a rather technical part of the whole process, but take the mandate and locate it in the hands of the governments in the Territories and the communities and the First Nations in the regions. So that's one way that I would like to describe what we'd look like 10 years from now.

Mr. Chairman, we're going to be able to report on the Northwest Territories where individuals and families and communities are back in control of their lives. We are still going to have to deal with the alcoholism and the substance and drug abuse and the temptations of the material world. They'll all be here with us. This is human nature, but, Mr. Chairman, they're going to be things that we can manage as a government because we have good systems in place. We have people who are prepared to

take responsibility for their actions and we will not have these things crashing and ruining so many of the lives in the communities of the Northwest Territories, which I think is what is happening today.

We will see in 2015, Mr. Chairman, I fervently hope, that we will be able to put the shameful legacy of residential schools behind us. I think this is one of the major contributors to the ills of so many people and communities in the Northwest Territories. We are trying to grapple with that and we're going to deal with it. Time will be a large factor in how that is healed and not the only one, but I hope that 10 years from now we can say that we really have left most of this behind us and we are able to get on with building our lives.

I hope that 10 years from now, Mr. Chairman, this Assembly, this room, is going to have value and purpose and relevance to the people of the NWT and is seen as a place where we are making a difference in people's lives so that we are respected, we are looked up to, we are a desirable place to come and work. We're not there right now, Mr. Speaker. This institution has got some room to grow and improve.

I hope that along with that we will see a workforce that gets satisfaction and rewards from being in our employ and being at the service of the public for the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Chairman, I hope our lakes and our lands and our waters are cleaner than they are today because the legacies of a lot of old bad practices are with us today. We have the tools at our disposal now to engage in really cleaning them up. I certainly hope we can make that happen and that 10 years from now we can say this is a cleaner land than it is even today.

Mr. Chairman, I hope that, among the regions and the communities and the peoples of the NWT, we aren't looking at each other as much anymore as being richer or poorer or bigger or smaller or more or less advantaged or disadvantaged than each other. This is a dynamic that occurs in any jurisdiction, but I do hope that we can overcome that. We are all different, we will always be different. We can recognize and even, in a lot of areas, celebrate those differences, use them to our advantage, Mr. Chairman. I really hope that we can avoid the temptation to dominate one or another because of our geography or our size or our mass or our wealth and that we will be good neighbours and we won't be competing so much.

I'd like to see, Mr. Chairman, that the NWT and Nunavut and the Yukon will emerge as truly contributing parts of Canada and not just in a physical way, but as part of the fabric and colour and the grit and the texture of what Canada has become and has the potential to be. Not, as I said earlier, just as this big pink part of the map that sucks up so much southern texture and money. I believe there's an awe and a pride in this land and I think we have a requirement, Mr. Chairman, to live up to that.

I see the NWT in 10 years, Mr. Chairman, as a place that has a new name and an identity that really does reflect who we are and what we want to be that projects our image to ourselves certainly, but also to the rest of Canada and the world. I am not going to get into what the new name should be right now. I'm not going to bite on that one. But, in 2015, Mr. Chair, we are going to have a new name. My colleagues, Mr. Chair, are suggesting that we call it Bill. Why don't we call it William? Mr. Chair, I hope that our cultures, artisans and creators can live in a place where they can flourish and grow. The health of any society, I believe, can quite quickly and accurately be gauged by the health and state of its arts and artisans. Our languages, music, traditions, both traditional and aboriginal, and those of other Canadians who live here now in Yellowknife boasts more than 100 nationalities living in the city. Is it 107? There are 117 languages I am hearing, Mr. Chair! That is extraordinary. Among our population, we count one-third our aboriginal people. Yellowknife is the biggest aboriginal community of the NWT.

I am getting all sorts of suggestions here, Mr. Chair. But the point is that when we create an environment where our arts, cultures and traditions are strong and they flourish, the rest of our society is probably very healthy as well.

Finally, Mr. Chair, the world hungers today for our oil and gas. Let's do the best we can to gain from it. But let's be ready, Mr. Chair, to take up a much bigger challenge. That would be when the world starts to hunger for our vast resources of fresh water. That, Mr. Chair, I am convinced will be struggle, a battle we must start to prepare for right away because it would be the biggest test of all of our unity, resolve and commitment to ourselves, to our environment and to the rest of Canada. That is the report from 2015. Thank you, Madam Chair.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. We have Mr. Zoe next.

Mahsi, Mr. Zoe. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will add a few comments onto this. I like what I see in a lot of this. I kind of look at everything in black and white. I think things are usually pretty simple, like Mrs. Groenewegen has said. One of the things that I like here is this resource revenue sharing. I am reading here where 100 percent of the royalties go back to Ottawa. I don't agree with them. This is our territory. These are our resources. The benefits from these resources should stay here. I think this government has actually taken it upon themselves to try and make sure that the resources stop here and people of the Northwest Territories benefit. I commend them for that. I think that they will be able to accomplish that. I read in here with interest where it says the lands are administered by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. We don't use that the word anymore. That is an old word. It is just a lot of things in here that I see. Like I said, I see everything in black and white. I don't like the fact that we are continually being tied in with the other two territories. I like to think that we are the Northwest Territories; we are not the pan-territories. However, other than that, most of the things that I see in here I like. This is something that will be getting looked at by the leaders throughout the Northwest Territories. With the leadership that we have in the Beaufort-Delta, I am sure they are going to be more than happy to give us their point of view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you. I have just a few comments. For the vision of the Northwest Territories, I was really curious in terms of seeing if our government will ask some of our elders. Now, I can see clearly the vision. Now, I see. Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger...

---Laughter

...to ask our elders to ask about the visions for the Northwest Territories. Our elders have always given us visions and stories about our land and people. They have a vision about the Mackenzie River. They have a vision, believe it or not, about the pipeline. My grandmother talked about the cruise missiles coming through the Mackenzie Valley way before it came down the Mackenzie Valley. They had stories. It would be very interesting in this government here to ask our elders, who have some special knowledge about this land -- we've been here for thousands of years -- to ask them what their thoughts are on the vision for the North. They surely can help us about the land, especially about how we take care of it and how we are supposed to take care of the land in light of the development that is going to come down here. I guess I would like to see if this Northern Strategy process would incorporate some of our elders, a special room that would give us some stories to help us. I think that is one of our keys here, is to get the elders involved in this process here. Right down the Mackenzie Valley, we have wonderful old people who have stories, visions and prophets, things that would happen for the Northwest Territories.

What are we to expect in the life of this government? I certainly would like to see some development happening

in our region in terms of possibly a two-lane highway in the Sahtu to Tuktoyaktuk in terms of infrastructure. Health services for our people in the small community, maybe our vision is in Colville Lake, we can see the doctor more than what happens now. We see a dentist twice a year in Colville Lake. Maybe we can see them longer. Those old people there really look forward to the vision of the North. Mr. McLeod said that there are lots of resources here. How come some of our communities don't see some of the services that other regions take for granted? That puzzles them. Those things that we look forward to, in terms of some of the basic needs in our communities, that the other centres take for granted. That is just the way it is. But, hopefully, we could change that around, that our old people could stay in the region rather than fly out. So those are the things that mean a lot.

That is why I say, Mr. Chair, that when we look towards our leaders and Ministers, people back home say those are our leaders. We have to support them. You ask us, we give you words. That is what they told me back home. You are our leaders, so we give you words. The same thing goes back to our Ministers. They are our leaders. They are the ones that are working on our behalf. So I am glad that Mr. Handley had this discussion here in terms of a strategy for the vision of the Northwest Territories. They are asking us what the vision is for the Northwest Territories. What are you guys doing? What is our vision? They have all these resource developments. We have all of these things going in the Northwest Territories. Give us something to look forward to. We can say with pride, maybe down in Ottawa, maybe down in our communities, we can say this is what we plan for the Northwest Territories. What do you think about this? They have to look for something to keep going. We have the Mackenzie gas project possibly coming through. We are not too sure if it is certain yet, but there are lots of good talks of it coming through. People want to see something of benefit from that project. I am more interested to see what kind of results you get from the discussions from the communities and from my elders. You have to get to the elders. I don't know how you are going to do it, to listen to them. There are not many of us in the Northwest Territories. We are very close in terms of our families. But the smaller communities really want to see the basic needs at least being met. That is what I want to say, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

---Applause

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Does the committee agree that consideration of Ministers' statements...Oh, Mr. Premier. Sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to make some closing comments on this discussion we had this afternoon. I want to say, first of all, that I really do listen carefully and will read Hansard very carefully on the good comments that were made today. I think that was a good discussion, the kind of discussion that I hope we can have more often because there are many things going on in this territory and in the North that we have no control over, whether it is by big multinationals or whether it is by other governments or whatever there may be. We are not in control of it. I don't feel that we have to control everything, but we have to be part of everything. We have to understand what is going on. It makes me very uneasy if we are just drifting along with the development. It used to be that development just happened incrementally. You found another patch of good land, farmers moved there and then they moved further north and further west. In our territory, it was we would find another mine or another pool of gas and you would have development that way. I believe we have an opportunity to manage that.

There are a few people who talked about some good practical suggestions that stood out, like the trust fund. Many of you mentioned the cost of living, a common thread we have here as northerners.

When we first began to look at the strategy, I thought we did, as a Legislative Assembly, work on our own NWT strategy as our guidance for the life of our government. I believe that's a good document. When we started to look at the North, and I had discussions with the Prime Minister going back over a year ago, we realized that the North is not just the Northwest Territories, just Yukon or Nunavut or just a combination of those three. There are many issues that affect all of us, so it was necessary to look at some things that were pan-territorial and say we can't talk about a climate change strategy or an energy strategy or sovereignty or security as just being Northwest Territories. We need to look at some of those things pan-territorial, but there are some things that are specific to our territory.

I see this document we will develop this spring as a first cut of a strategy as being one that will have a chapter or chapters on pan-territorial issues, but there will, very clearly, be a chapter on the Northwest Territories. As Members have said, we are quite different than Nunavut or Yukon. So there would be a chapter on the Northwest Territories, a chapter on Nunavut and a chapter on the Yukon.

Why include the other territories into the strategy? Well, it is because of the pan-territorial vision we need to have, a northern or arctic vision. Also because as one territory talking about its own issues, we may feel it's really big but when we look at all the priorities the federal government has, we are just a small piece of the whole agenda. So how do we make our issues into a major force in Ottawa? That is to talk about the North as a northern unit, because that's how the Prime Minister sees it. I am very happy with the extent to which the Prime Minister has bought into this and the extent to which he understands the pan-territorial issue, but he also understands the individual territories are very, very different and that one size doesn't fit all. We are going to have to do things different for us than the way you do it in the Yukon or Nunavut.

The other one is we look forward. We are very lucky because today it's us. We are riding the top of the wave in terms of economic development and lots of exciting things on the political front. Tomorrow it might be the Yukon, it could be Nunavut. So we will go through these things, but I think we have to work together with our northern partners on it.

Not only do we work with northerners, we also work with the Council of the Federation, that's with all the Premiers across the country. A few years ago, we moved from the kids' table to the big table. Other Premiers don't talk about the Premier of the Northwest Territories or Yukon as government leaders anymore. They talk about us as Premiers. We get exactly the same rights at the table as they do. They support us on our issues. We support them on their issues. I think by working together, that common thread we talked about goes further than just in the Northwest Territories. It's a common threat right across

the North. I believe we have more clout nationally and globally if we talk about the North as a place that we all live and we can all work together at.

So we will put together a strategy this spring. I am determined that we have something that we can take back. I like Mr. Yakeleya's comments about the elders, that they have vision. I don't know if it's something that comes from age. When you are young, you think you are invincible and life goes on forever, and as you get older you start thinking about what purpose you have served. How do I make a lasting difference that's going to go on? Maybe it's partly my age that lends me to want to have our government leave a vision that has some impact over the longer term. We are only here for four years and then somebody else comes along and we don't want to be just moving all over the place. We need a plan where we are going. Part of that has to be with other territories. Part of it has to be on our own.

It is about getting food and shelter and protection, but a strategy goes a lot further than that. Those are the basics. What we are talking about as we develop the strategy is the right of our people in the Northwest Territories, and in the North generally, to have equality with all Canadians. For us, as a government, to have the resources to be able to deliver the same kind of quality of programs and services as Canadians get anywhere else, that's what people want. That often goes beyond the basics. We all, as Canadians, have an equal right to benefit from the wealth in this country and the rights we enjoy in this country. We will do it a little differently in Quebec than we do in the Northwest Territories or Newfoundland, but we all have a right to that. You shouldn't have to live a second-class life just because you live in the North or you live in a small community or you live in a community where it isn't right on a mine site or next door to a mine or a pipeline or something. That is what we should strive for in our Northern Strategy.

Environment is important, in my mind. That's critical. That lasts forever, but we sure change it a lot. We need to manage how development happens and we need to clean up the messes that have been there and we need to manage how that environment is going to be managed in the long term. You know non-renewable resources don't come back, but we don't want to live in a wasteland.

Sovereignty issues are important and we need to look at that. That's a pan-territory one, as is environment, in my view, because both of them go beyond any borders. None of us want to see somebody else having the right to just go in and occupy a piece of land because they want to get the resources off it, nor should they have the right to have missiles whizzing down the valley or going over our territory, nor should we be having ships travelling through the Northwest Passage without ever asking or having regulations. Those are things that are important to us too, on environment and sovereignty.

Another one that's very important, in my mind, is climate change and energy. When I met with the western Premiers last June or July, one of the things that I was very happy that we achieved was having an agreement among all the western Premiers on a Western Energy Alliance. I think it was Mr. Braden who gave me a copy of the Globe and Mail where the Yukon called for an arctic energy strategy. We are doing things, but we are doing it a little bit piecemeal here. So we need to bring this together as territories.

I think we have been sort of, to some extent, used by some people in the South. Not intentionally in an abusive way, but we have been on things like health research, as an example. Why aren't we leaders on health research? Why aren't we doing northern health research ourselves? Aboriginal people have lived here for a long time with traditional medicine, but you don't see it in our health system. It's all southern pills. Why aren't we doing research. Why do have people come here for the summer and do fieldwork on us and then go home and write their papers? We should be taking control of issues like that. Maybe not just us as the Northwest Territories, but maybe in cooperation with other territories.

There are a lot of areas where we need not just food and shelter, but we need control of our own lives. We need to control what's going on around us. We certainly need the support of the big industry and their development and ability to generate an economy. We need the federal government, as well, with their role in this country of ours and their ability to move things. We need the Prime Minister. So this document I see is one that is a combination of putting together a strategy for us in the Northwest Territories and for each of the other northern jurisdictions to do the same, and also to deal with some of these pan-territorial issues, and then to develop action plans that will say here's how we're going to clean up these environmental sites, here's how we're going to take control on the health side, here's how we're going to manage our economic development, our regulatory business. But that's the kind of document I see.

I very much see this, as well, Mr. Chairman, as a living document. I don't think we plan to prepare a strategy this spring and it comes out in a nice, fancy bound copy and then that's the end of it and it's the strategy. I think this will change, and it's a document that we should be talking about and elders should be talking about and school children should be talking about, about where it's taking us.

As I said in my introductory comments, we have an obligation for those very specific things that our constituents need right now, but we are the leaders who are going to have to take charge of the big vision of where we're going. We're the ones who present the whole territory and we need to do it, of course, with the regional and community people, but it's us who have that responsibility.

I want to say, Mr. Chairman, I really appreciate the comments today. I think it's a good beginning of discussions on our strategy. Like everyone else, I look forward to moving ahead with this, moving ahead with some of the stuff we've started like the plan to move on the April 6th Ottawa trip. I think when we do the briefing on devolution, you will find that it's moving. These are not things we've been talking about for a long time with no progress. I think we are, as a government, making some good progress on these things, and I'll be pleased to share that with you as we continue on. I'm determined that we will keep the Prime Minister to his word, and I know he's determined to keep to his word too, so here's our opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

---Applause

Thank you very much, Mr. Premier. Does the committee agree that consideration of Ministers' Statements 86-15(3), 88-15(3), 89-15(3), 90-15(3) and 91-15(3), and Tabled Document 108-15(3) are concluded?

Agreed. I would like to thank you very much. Consideration of these documents is concluded and we will call for a short recess. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

Welcome back, committee. I will call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on the NWT Housing Corporation. I will ask Minister Krutko if he would like to bring in his officials. Is the committee agreed?

Thank you. Then I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms, if he would please escort the witnesses to the table. We are on general comments.

Mr. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses, for the record? Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left is Mr. Jeff Anderson, chief financial officer; on my right is the president of the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Fred Koe.