Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to stand here in this House today in support of this motion. I am happy to second this motion that is before us today on the restoration of funding for the federal cuts that recently took place here. Mr. Speaker, I am as disturbed as the next Member on these cuts and what they mean to the residents of the Northwest Territories. That's why I am very happy to be seconding the motion that is before us.

Cuts in literacy, volunteerism, the smoking cessation; these are programs that impact our residents tremendously. I have mentioned it before in this House, the other day when I was questioning the Premier on this. We are not a province. We are a territory. We have a very limited ability in replacing any of these funds that are cut. But, Mr. Speaker, we do have a $1.1 billion budget. My message through this motion today is if the government can't go back to the federal government, our government go back to the federal government, and demand, until there is a resource revenue dealing in place, that they reinstate every single dollar that came out of program funding here in the Northwest Territories, then we are going to go back in the business plans and the budget, and we are going to find the dollars and we are going to replace those dollars. I think that, to me, is fundamental. We can find the money. We can come up with the money to support those programs. I know that and many Members on this side of the House know that. That might be the step, Mr. Speaker, that we need to take.

We have to send a strong and clear message to Ottawa. That hasn't been done. We stand by, we continue to just

be treated as second-class citizens in this country, Mr. Speaker. It's not acceptable. We have to put our foot down.

To the groups out there who lost this funding, and I will mention this right now, we have the capacity to replace it. If the federal government is not going to do it, then I would suggest we start looking at ways and means as a government to come up with the dollars to carry out these programs that are essential to our residents here in the Northwest Territories and we start putting our money where our mouth is. Mahsi.

---Applause