Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know if this is the right time for it with all these guys being up here, but I want to speak about the federal government's attitude towards the Northwest Territories.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, we recently heard about all the cuts that were made. A billion dollars cut for youth groups and for volunteer groups, adult literacy groups and for women's groups. Mr. Speaker, these people put a lot of work into the job that they do. Why should we have them sitting like little pups under the table waiting for some scraps to fall off. We have money constantly leaving the Northwest Territories and yet these folks have to fight for every nickel and dime they can get. It's really not fair to these people who try to provide a service. The Canadian government gives money all over the place and maybe it's time they started giving some money back to the Northwest Territories.

They like to talk about sovereignty all the time. We used to have an Armed Forces base up in Inuvik. That closed down a few years ago. Five hundred people left town.

Maybe it's time to look at re-opening that, putting another one up there so we can have those 500 people back.

We want highways, Mr. Speaker, and the thing that troubles me about the whole thing is the money that leaves the Northwest Territories. Every year we lose millions of dollars and we expect our NGOs and people who try to provide half decent services to constantly scratch and scrape for every nickel and dime they can get. It's really not a fair process, Mr. Speaker.

I think it's time this government, and I know Ottawa listens to us, and I think it's time...

---Interjection