Thank you, Madam Chairperson. I, too, have some grave concerns over the exploitation, I would say, of our natural resources and who gets the true benefits here. Our struggle and our goal and our objectives for gaining province-like powers or province-like stature or, indeed, even provincehood as an eventuality. I hope that everybody shares that dream along with me. It has been with us a very long time. It's about a 125-year-old dream. As soon as they labelled us a territory, then we wanted to break free.
I come from a riding that is predominantly aboriginal. The majority there are aboriginal and during my campaigning period, Madam Chairperson, when I talked about resource revenue sharing and keeping our resources, self-reliance, self-government; everybody knows what that means, because that is something that we want to achieve as aboriginal people as well. Everybody knows what those mean and when I came to the Legislature, we are talking about the same thing.
It is a consistent dream throughout the North, with all the aboriginal claimant groups and ourselves, so when I look at it I say, okay, we do have something in common; we have a common thread that runs through us all, throughout the whole North now, it's just a matter of getting there.
Everybody has different ways of doing things, of seeing things. Their realities are different, but I know that we are dialoguing, we are talking with each other. We may be at an impasse or a standstill at some points, but I think that eventually we will stand together and we are working towards that aspiration, that goal of being free. In fact, it is like our opening prayer every morning at this Legislature, it's up to us to take care of the aspirations of those we serve, and I truly believe the aspirations are to be free to control our own destiny. I believe we are going to achieve that.
I think one of the ways to do it, is that a lot of the barriers that are standing in our way are many of our own imbalances up here in the North. That gets in the way of many things. I am going to say disparities that are between the communities and power rates are one way of doing it. Everybody is asking why are we all different. If we are all the same, why are we doing things differently? It is the little things, it's the little victories, the little things that are making life easier in the communities that can bind us and, I really believe, lay a path for us to be marching to Ottawa with one voice.
Our base needs must be addressed and that is all that is ever asked of me and that is all that I am asking of this government too, on a daily basis. Let's just take care of the real needs of our people and we will move forward from there. A lot of it is having to hear people and that is all it is. When I talk about base needs, it's something that I have been pursuing, too, for a long time. Ever since I have been elected, I have been talking about a base need in Nahanni Butte, like the gymnasium and that is all it is.
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That is my vision. That is all it is, is listening to our communities and making it a priority. On a territorial-wide scale, too, like I mentioned, we have been trying to do this for 125 years and finally, Madam Chairperson -- the federal government calls us a frontier, they have been investing into us for like 125 years and we have been like
a transfer for the federal government -- finally now we are like a net contributor to Canada. The Treasury Board has a long memory and, I don't know how they do it but, over 125 years they are saying, now the NWT is going to have to pay until it balances out and we're all even. But I don't think it has to be that way, Madam Chair. I believe that there must be a way for us to keep the benefits of our resources, but Ottawa is continuing to treat it as a boon to their coffers. It's simple. People are studying colonialism and there's only one way to subjugate your people, and that's to make them dependent on you and don't give them the resources to be independent. It's textbook. I believe that.
In order to break out of that, one of the biggest barriers we have is the current royalty regime. We're talking about we want resource revenue sharing, but we're just going to get a percentage of the three percent royalties that they're getting from our coffers. I have some friends who are saying, look, Kevin, you guys want to run your billion-dollar government on resource revenue sharing, but if it's true resource revenue sharing, you guys are only making $120 million a year. How the heck are you going to run your government on $120 million a year as it currently exists? So the royalty regime has to be changed too.
So I kind of look at that and say we have a long ways to go, but it begins today and our predecessors in the 14th, 13th and 12th Assemblies all made little major steps. I'm looking forward to this NWT Day that's going to happen in Ottawa, because that's going to make a huge impact. I think we did that in the 12th Assembly when we brought more power and ability to our job back here in the Northwest Territories.
So that's the way I see it, because the only ones who are benefiting are the multinational corporations and we're the ones who should be benefiting. Because when I go home, that's what people are saying. They're truly saying that. Hey, if I'm not going to benefit from this pipeline, then I don't want it.