Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I was at a negotiation session one time and I read where it says in order to get to the Promised Land you have to negotiate your way out of the wilderness. I think that's what we're doing here. I think the Northwest Territories has a lot of promise and things could happen in the Northwest Territories. I think right now with this Northern Strategy, that the Premier is giving us an opportunity to look for vision in the Northwest Territories; things that we'd like to see in the North.
Within the 15th Legislative Assembly we have only a short period of time, four years. We do the best we can in four years, Mr. Chairman, in laying the vision, in this statement it says, for generations to come. This is a long process we're entering. As far as our vision for the North is, we know the North is full of riches in resources and tradition
in our land, and that we're laying the foundation for our children. Hopefully one day we will see it. Just like we negotiate our land claims. I told this to our people when we were negotiating our land claims, that we're negotiating the tools. God willing, we'll see some of the things come to fruition. However, this is not for us. We're just laying the foundation and maintaining that foundation that maybe one day our children's children will benefit from what we negotiate between the territorial government and the federal government.
I think, Mr. Chairman, the Premier has given us an opportunity to look at the vision for the Northwest Territories. Hopefully that vision will be that one day we would have a discussion on provincehood, in terms of becoming a true provincial partner in the Confederation of Canada.
Mr. Chairman, the heart of the Northern Strategy, as Mr. Premier talked about, is devolution and a resource revenue sharing agreement. Devolution, I understand, started happening in the 1870s. That's when they started developing into the Northwest Territories, the transfer of responsibilities from Ottawa to the Northwest Territories. Now we're just talking about it in terms of seeing some benefits and as to manage it; the economics and the environments and seeing the benefits in the finances that would reflect our uniqueness in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Chairman, the Premier also talked about the Northern Strategy being a living document. I see that living document as evolving, as something that we hold sacred to us. Mr. Chairman, the living document that some of our people talk to in the smaller communities are the treaties that they have negotiated with the federal government. This Northern Strategy could be in the similar spirit and intent with the Government of the Northwest Territories. We're laying the foundation for our people.
I see this Northern Strategy as getting some of the basic needs to our people in the communities. We're encouraging our people to have healthy lifestyles, healthy choices, but when you pay $16 for a 10-pound bag of potatoes in Norman Wells, it's pretty hard to have a really healthy lifestyle. So the high cost of living in our small communities is really hurting us. Shelters and homes in our communities; the basic needs to have decent homes and decent living shelters for our people is the number one priority.
I'm happy to hear Mr. Premier talk about the hydroelectricity for people to cut down our power and the damage it's doing to our environment by using diesel-powered generators in our communities. We could benefit from the hydro dam. That will certainly help us in our communities. Also, the services that we want to evolve from Ottawa to the Northwest Territories in terms of programs and services with regard to devolution would improve the quality of living in our communities.
I guess, Mr. Chairman, when I look at the Northern Strategy, I see it as a long-term, sustainable vision developing for our people in the North. I look forward to developing this with our people in the communities, in our larger centres. We look forward to the leadership on the Premier's side, in terms of his Ministers going after what is possible for us. We're looking for them because they have that capability right now. They're our leaders right now. It's like us on this side here. As Ministers, you have that responsibility to work on our behalf and this is an important piece of work that is coming up and I think it's about time that the Northwest Territories starts thinking about powers. We want to call it a policy, but I don't know if we really want to right now. I don't know if we have the capacity to have that discussion, but that's something that our people are looking forward to in our small communities. They're looking for direction from this government to step it up a bit. So I look forward to further discussions on this in the coming years, Mr. Chairman. I think that's all I have to say. Thank you.
---Applause