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