Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I am also a strong supporter of this motion simply due to all of the reasons that all of the Members gave in their Members' statements today. I hope that we can reach some
agreement-in-principle by the deadline that was specified in the motion.
Mr. Speaker, in my constituency of Tu Nedhe, we have two multi-billion dollar mines that are operating. We have one that is currently under construction. We have another one that is in the regulatory stages. We have a few more that are in the assessment stages of whether they are going to develop or not, and many more exploration claims that are being actively assessed in the uranium, lead, zinc and other industries. That is just going to add to more resource revenues leaving our territory if and when they do start producing. If we are standing here in two or three more years still wondering where our resource revenue sharing agreement is, how many millions of dollars are going to be gone by that time, Mr. Speaker? Like the one Member said, we are talking three-quarters of a million dollars a day. That is just mind boggling to think of how much we are losing out on.
In our smaller communities all over the Territories we have high unemployment rates because we don't have the resources to provide training to these people that want to take some upgrading and want to improve on their skills. We have high crime rates in the smaller centres. We have high rates of illiteracy amongst the aboriginal peoples just simply due to the fact that this government just doesn't have the resources available or the adequate resources at our disposal to deal with all of these issues that come forward in this House everyday. I think that if we do have some kind of agreement-in-principle which even sets aside some dollars for future use or where aboriginal, regional or community governments can access in order to build capacity, assist our elders in housing and assist the youth in furthering their education, it is a win-win situation, Mr. Speaker.
I really have to emphasize that we have to really come together as northerners and really put some stringent demands on bureaucracy, the House of Commons, the leaders in Ottawa, to ensure that everything that Stephen Harper said when he was here, that we have to hear the call of a new North. We are a new North. We are prosperous. We are strong, but we are not liberated. I think that is the whole issue of resource revenue sharing, is the fact that we are not liberated so we just don't have the clout and the guns to make stringent demands. Maybe we have to even go further than a motion and come unified and just halting all development in the NWT altogether until we get a resource revenue sharing agreement.
Like another Member said, the more resources start flowing out of the Territories, the harder line the federal government is going to take in ensuring that we don't get a resource revenue sharing agreement anytime soon. So time is of the essence. It is about time that we really stand together and really draw our line in the sand and move forward with the federal government in tow to develop a resource revenue sharing agreement which we can all live with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause