Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People who lived in this land before government came along were very self-reliant. They had no choice. Sometimes things were tough. Sometimes there was an abundance of what people needed. Government came and people became very dependent on the generosity of a government, whether it was a federal or territorial government, far too much. I believe every person in the Northwest Territories wants to regain that self-reliance, pride, that self-esteem that comes with it.
Mr. Speaker, our young people have gone to school on the promise that there would be jobs, that there would be a future for them. We have record numbers coming through the school system. We need to provide them with a future. We need to do it in a modern way. They don't want to go back, all of them, and be trappers and hunters and so on. That future doesn't exist for most of them anymore. They want their place in Canada in a modern world.
Mr. Speaker, we have the good fortune of an abundance of wealth in the Northwest Territories. We are agreeable to having that resource, much of which is non-renewable extracted from our land, but on the condition that it is done in a way that is environmentally right, that it is done in a way that the people in the North will benefit the most from it. The Prime Minister has made that commitment, that we should be the primary beneficiaries. He said we should get the principal share of the resource revenues. We believe him.
Mr. Speaker, I think we have an opportunity ourselves as a government and the federal government to do something that is here with us right now. It may not return again if we miss this opportunity. It may not return for 20, 50 or 100 years, or we may never have this opportunity again. I think it is dependent on us as government and aboriginal leaders to take advantage of that opportunity for our people and for future generations. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that our government supports this recommendation 100 percent...
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...and we appreciate the support of all of you as leaders in trying to move this ahead along with the federal government, our government and with the aboriginal governments. Mr. Speaker, like I say, we support this 100 percent. Our Cabinet will not be voting on this issue because it is a recommendation to the government and following tradition, we do not vote on recommendations to us. With that, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause