Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me say that, first of all, there are a lot of good, strong statements made today about needing to work together as northerners. That's one. I can tell you that at my informational meeting with National Chief Bill Erasmus this week that that was the same discussion of the Dene Nation meeting in Fort Good Hope earlier. So working together is absolutely important. Aboriginal leaders have to work together and we have to work together with aboriginal leaders as northern leaders. So that's number one.

Mr. Speaker, a second one is we have to agree on an agenda of how we're going to move forward from where we are now, from the commitments that the Prime Minister has made, commitments Minister Prentice has made, the appeals we have made to them including letters this week to move this forward.

Basically I would say in answer to the question, partnerships working together as northerners, how do we get northern leaders working together with us? Second is how do we get the federal government's attention? That goes from the Prime Minister to the Minister of DIAND would be my two top things that I believe we need to work on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for those answers. What is the next thing on the Premier's agenda with respect to this file? What's up and coming and what do we have in our ability, within our ability...I want to say arsenal of tactics of things we can do. We've heard everything from taking down the flag of Canada to putting up a bronze statue. No, that one we don't take seriously.

---Laughter

But we're desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures. What is the next thing on the Premier's agenda and what do we reasonably have in our control to advance this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, I think the first essential piece we need is for all northern leaders to work together on this and recognize this as being the most important topic we can deal with. Mr. Speaker, there is a meeting of the Aboriginal Summit leaders on November 9th and that is a critical meeting. Following that I intend to, I hope the leaders are able to come to agreement on what their agenda is, who the membership is, and so on. Then I intend to meet with them and I've made that known to the leaders already.

Second, Mr. Speaker, with aboriginal leaders it's not all the aboriginal leaders who see devolution and resource revenue sharing as the top of the agenda. Some of them see settlement of their negotiation processes as being an essential ingredient that they have to resolve first. Mr. Speaker, we have to find a way of being able to work with all leaders, including those who don't see this issue as being the top of their agenda. They've got other things that are more important to them and I respect their wishes.

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the federal government, it's true, as someone mentioned, there's only 43,000 of us. We only have one seat in the federal Parliament, so we

have limited authority. The federal government has all the authority on permits and land use and so on, except for bits of Commissioner's land. So we don't have that legal lever. Mr. Speaker, what we do has to be persuasion, it has to be in some cases assuming some space that is unoccupied. By this I mean taking things like on the financial side. We have to look, and the Minister of Finance has to look, very carefully at what areas could we occupy on taxation, for example. I don't know what those are, but we need to look at what things can we do that are going to cause the federal government to pay attention to our needs.

The other one, Mr. Speaker, is we face a huge bureaucracy in Ottawa and I have to say quite frankly that in my view a lot of the bureaucrats working in Ottawa feel threatened by devolution and resource revenue sharing. Somehow this is going to challenge their right to a job. In that way they continue this colonial legacy that's been going on for so many years. We have to get through to that bureaucracy.

So, Mr. Speaker, as I speak I know the Secretary to Cabinet is writing to Mr. Sulzenko who is the lead for Mr. Prentice on the pipeline file. He is also writing to Harvie Andre who is the lead on devolution file; being very clear with them of what our agenda is. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Premier says there are groups or areas or regions in the Northwest Territories that do not see this as a priority, my next question to the Premier would be then what can he do as the Premier to convene a dialogue or something that will create the awareness? I mean development is proceeding here. The incentive for Ottawa to deal with this is going to get less rather than more as the increased amount of revenue flowing to Ottawa proceeds. So can the Premier give us a commitment that he will convene a forum where a dialogue to create awareness amongst leaders about the significance of this? Draw a picture, draw a map, explain what's at stake. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I couldn't make it to the Dene Assembly meeting in Fort Good Hope last week, but I did meet with the national chief, as I mentioned. I want to build on the mood of partnership and working together that was started at that meeting. As I said, there is a meeting of the Aboriginal Summit leaders on the 9th. Following that I am going to invite, in fact before that happens I will invite all of the leaders to a meeting of the kind that Members referred to here. Just leaders. We don't need a lot of staff, just ourselves as elected leaders. Mr. Speaker, I hope to do that in November, but it depends on the leaders' agendas. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Oral Questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I was referring to in my Member's statement today, the people of the NWT contribute to Canada. This is an amazing country and we do our share, Mr. Speaker. But respect is a two-way street. So as I pointed out in my little press story that could have been anywhere between yesterday and two years ago, Premier Handley says that we are close. Where are we on this deal? Where are we? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I have said we're close, we're moving in the right direction on several occasions. Mr. Speaker, during the past three years of our government's life we've had to go through two federal elections, a number of band elections and so on. But the federal elections in particular tend to throw us off schedule. So we've had two of them and we may in fact have a third one before our government has completed its agenda. So those certainly slow us down.

Mr. Speaker, I think we're closer.

---Laughter

I can tell you right now that the Prime Minister, this Prime Minister, has committed that northerners will be the primary beneficiaries. That is an agreement we never got out of any government before, any federal government, and we finally got that, and I take the Prime Minister at his word on it.

Mr. Speaker, the second thing is that the federal government has recently appointed a new federal negotiator. I take that as a sign that they want to get on with negotiations. Mr. Speaker, as I said, the Secretary to Cabinet is writing to that individual saying we want an agreement-in-principle by the end of this fiscal year and we'll lay out what our plan is to achieve that.

Mr. Speaker, those are steps that we can take to try and move us along. I can't guarantee it as I'm only one out of three parties that have to negotiate this. I'm saying that's the aboriginal, our government and the federal government. But I can tell you, I'm doing everything in my power to be able to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This summer I was here when the Prime Minister had mentioned no pipeline, no deal; and he was referring to resource and self-government, devolution deals. Mr. Speaker, I want to hear the Premier of our Northwest Territories say no deal,

no pipeline, because the pipeline has got the attention of the country, the federal government wants it. I'm not opposed to the pipeline by any means, but people want this, the federal government wants this, I want to hear how the Premier is taking offence to this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to tie a devolution and resource revenue sharing agreement specifically to the pipeline. But what I am going to tie it to is resource development generally. I don't think the people up and down the Mackenzie Valley should pay the price. We should all, as northerners, be willing to make that sacrifice if it's necessary in order to get a better deal and it doesn't matter whether it's mining in this area or pipeline or whatever, but let's make it fair to everybody across the Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to reaffirm. I didn't say that in the context that I'm against the pipeline or in the context that I'm against resource development, because I have significant environmental concerns as well as economic concerns. Until we get that control, we can't control either of them. We're in a difficult situation.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier had spoken about partnerships. I'd like to hear from him today about what is he doing with our local Dene Nation of the Northwest Territories or aboriginal groups to reach outside of the Territories and say, well, wait a minute, let's contact the AFN. They're a huge lobby group and they would morally help us fight for our rights. What about talking to guys like Buzz Hargrove? They have a huge membership and that would deliver a massive statement. What are we doing about delivering a message in the Globe and Mail, a full page to say the NWT has come of age, give us our rights back, or give us our rights to start with, Mr. Speaker.

So what is the Premier doing to advocate that and build those partnerships? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier, I've spent more time and energy on this issue than any other one. In terms of getting us out there on the national stage, we have done everything we can and I can tell you we've had more coverage in this government in national media than any other government. Mr. Speaker, that's been important. We've done that along with aboriginal leaders. I have worked very closely with the aboriginal national leaders. I was the first Premier to bring the national aboriginal leaders into the Premiers' meetings when we met in Inuvik, and that's continued on and they continue to be strong supporters.

Mr. Speaker, with the other Premiers we have a very clear message and very clear support from Premiers across the country. We participated in the fiscal imbalance reviews and the fiscal imbalance reports and we've got strong support from the Premiers. Mr. Speaker, we have strong support from the Prime Minister. Mr. Speaker, what we need is to get more action going on the statements that have been made and we have a short window before the next election. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that was all well and good and I take it for what it was because it was good. But, Mr. Speaker, I did not hear about building the coalitions and the partnerships, Mr. Speaker. The real ones out there, like building it with the AFN. I heard a great statement by Premier Danny Williams about supporting the Northwest Territories' right to exert our own control. Mr. Speaker, what is the Premier doing with the provinces in getting them to put forward motions in their Legislatures about it's time that we get control over our own lands? So, Mr. Speaker, would the Premier take that extra step and start building individual coalitions with individual provinces who also have the right to slow this process down? Let's get them on board. What will the Premier do?