All those opposed please stand. All those abstaining please stand.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Results of the vote: nine for, zero against, seven abstaining. The motion is carried.

---Carried

---Applause

Motions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

The Member is seeking unanimous consent to deal with the motion he gave notice of earlier today. Are there any nays? There are no nays. You may deal with your motion, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS water is essential to life, and constitutes a fundamental human right;

AND WHEREAS this right includes access to water bodies for purposes of harvesting, travel and navigation, and mechanisms to prevent or seek redress for any action that may affect these rights;

AND WHEREAS this right extends to water as part of a healthy environment and recognizes spiritual and cultural values, taking into consideration the needs of the most disadvantaged and of future generations;

AND WHEREAS on September 7, 2006, in Fort Simpson, representatives of the peoples residing in the vast basin including Lake Athabasca, the Slave River, Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River issued the Keepers of the Water Declaration which asserts fundamental human rights with respect to water;

AND WHEREAS the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted, on November 26, 2002, the General Comment on the Right to Water, which states that "Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights;"

AND WHEREAS climate change and the expansion of industrial activity are diminishing the quantity and quality of water in the Mackenzie Basin;

NOW THEREFORE I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that this Legislative Assembly recognizes that all peoples have a fundamental human right to water that must be recognized nationally and internationally, including the development of appropriate institutional mechanisms to ensure that these rights are implemented;

AND FURTHER that this Legislative Assembly recognizes that this right includes access to water bodies for purposes of harvesting, travel and navigation, and mechanisms to prevent or seek redress for any action that may affect these rights;

AND FURTHERMORE that this Legislative Assembly recognizes that this right must take precedence over the use of water for industrial and commercial purposes;

AND FURTHERMORE that this Legislative Assembly endorses the application of the precautionary approach in all management decisions or actions that may affect the quality, quantity or natural rate of flow of water within the basin;

AND FURTHERMORE that this Legislative Assembly urges all parties to complete and implement comprehensive watershed management and land use plans as soon as possible in order to safeguard water sources and maintain ecosystem integrity across the basin.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, water is what sustains us and gives us life. Every one of our communities is situated on a body of water. People are drawn to water and there is a deep spiritual and mystical significance to water for most people, especially the aboriginal people. We know, across the world, that the water we take for granted is under tremendous stress. Mr. Speaker, the world itself comprises 70 percent water; however, 97 percent of that is salt water, 2 percent is tied up in the ice caps in the North and South Poles; that leaves 1 percent, and of that 1 percent that's left is fresh potable water around the world, and half is very badly polluted already, which leaves us half a percent that we talk about when we talk about fresh water.

Mr. Speaker, this is not just a feel good motion; this is a very fundamental statement of one of our core values. There is a debate going around the world about whether water is just a need or a fundamental right. We are asserting in this motion that it is a fundamental right for all people. If it is just a need it becomes a commodity, it becomes subject to export, privatization, it becomes subject to all these trade agreements we have and that, Mr. Speaker, is not what I think we want in the Northwest Territories. We want to state very clearly, on record, in this House where laws are made and public policy is decided, that one of our values is that water is a fundamental right. On the basis of that motion, as we did with the other motion, we are setting the stage for some very significant public policy discussion on where do we go with our natural resources in the coming years and how do we deal with the factors that are affecting us like climate change.

Mr. Speaker, it has been said the federal government has jurisdiction but I would submit that we have, as legislators, a political and moral obligation to act on this. We know we cannot count entirely on the federal government. They have legislation but they choose not to act on it in many, many cases. You can go across the country to areas where the federal government has jurisdiction and have not acted in the best interests of the people. Let me give you one example: Let's talk about the health indicators for aboriginal people across this country for which the federal government has direct fiduciary responsibility, as they go to the provinces and territories and tell us to straighten out our wait times, the health indicators for aboriginal people, especially on reserves, are the worst in the country. So let me state again, we have a moral and political obligation to act on this.

I'd like to thank my colleagues for their support on this motion and I understand that this is going to be a free vote in the House and, if it is, I would encourage all the Members to find it in themselves to support this very fundamental motion that is a statement of one of our core basic principles as northerners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the motion. The honourable Member or Tu Nedhe, Mr. Villeneuve.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I also stand up and talk of my unconditional, full support of this motion and the fundamental right to water by all Canadians, all human beings.

Just getting to the water issue, Mr. Speaker, as it relates to the NWT and getting back to some of the...We could throw a lot of statistics out there to how much water we do get from the South. The Mackenzie River basin is one of the largest watershed basins in Canada, or it is the largest in Canada. It has a long history of supporting First Nations for many hundreds of years. At the Keepers of the Water Conference, the first of its kind that was held in Fort Simpson in 2006 by First Nations groups and organizations, they basically came up with a fundamental principle that water is a sacred gift and is an essential element that sustains and connects all life and is not a commodity bought or sold. I think that's all we need to know, Mr. Speaker. It's as simple as that. It just connects everything and it sustains everything and there is no argument about it.

I think where the argument lies is in the right to water and who has that fundamental right and who is going to regulate that right. The inter-jurisdictional boundaries, the agreements, have really no place when you are talking about something as fundamental as the right to clean and fresh water.

With that, we have to recognize what the indigenous people here have been telling us. They have already seen changes in the lands, the water levels and the flow rates, receding shorelines, depleting fish habitats and populations. They all share that common trait that they recognize it's due to the fact that we are not managing and not protecting our water in the basin. It's, most notably, due to oil and gas exploration and we know that. The demands for water and energy coincide with each other. There is a high demand for both. Unfortunately, you can't have both. You can have water or energy or use water to develop energy. I think here in the North, we are offering choices to the world that we can do both in one sustainable development model and use water as energy as opposed to depleting water to generate energy as what they are doing in the Athabasca region, Mr. Speaker.

I just wanted to make that point known and keep everybody aware that I hope gatherings or First Nations organizations and other world wildlife organizations that are geared towards conservation of water and water quality that it carries on and keeps moving forward just as many conferences as we see on oil and gas coming up every month, every week and everyday all over Canada. The importance of water here has to be right next to it on the priority list of this government and the federal government. I know it's on the First Nations priority list and always has been.

With that, I would just like to close by saying there is an open boat here today and I would be really disappointed and dismayed if I saw any Member here not fully endorse a motion as important as this one. With that, I hope we can all stand and really join hands on this one, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Villeneuve. To the motion. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to stand and join hands together on this motion, Mr. Speaker. Seriously, this is a very important statement that we are making in this House and I believe a formal motion like this is not one to be taken lightly. It is a stand and a strong position that this Legislature is taking as a collective body and saying to the world what we believe in and what we stand for.

Mr. Speaker, I see this as a guiding principle that should give direction to the government in all that it does in future as it relates to protection and looking after the health of our water, Mr. Speaker.

I don't know why, but I think this topic is conjuring up a lot of memories for a lot of Members here because when we are looking at climate change or quality of water, we think about what our forefathers have told us, we remember what we went through when we were little in terms of climate change. I know I am not the oldest Member in this House and not the youngest Member in the House, but I lived in a part of the world where we didn't have running taps in the house. Part of my daily chore was to get water from places where we all had to go to get it. There are people around the world, especially women, whose job it is, whose main job it is everyday to travel for hours to collect water just for mere survival of her family. Water is such a precious resource.

When the Member of Thebacha said, in explaining this motion, that it's really important that we understand water as public good and there is a fundamental right attached to that, that we can't make a commodity out of something as important as that, it's an important principle that we are speaking to. I think we should spend all our time and thinking behind this to make sure we live up to the spirit and direction that comes out of this motion.

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to mention that earlier today we had a theme day discussion on water. One of the things that keeps coming up is we need to have a collective think tank, collective position, collectively work together on how we go about living up to the principles of a motion like this. I think in all that we do, whether it be resource development projects or building projects, our energy policy, our power policy, everything that we do we need to make sure that we address our mind to the importance of protecting our water and understanding that the water is fundamental to life -- it's more essential than life itself -- and that we abide by the guiding principle that we present today. With that, I am happy to support this motion.

---Applause

Thank you, Ms. Lee. To the motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, I stand here 100 percent behind this motion, behind the intent, behind the spirit and, hopefully, the force of it.

An aspect of the world water management in North America, Mr. Speaker, is the way water has been commodified. It is now something that is very much in the realm of the world of commercialization. Mr. Speaker, at least one Member this afternoon has already talked about bottled water and how strange it is that we would forsake the fantastic water that we have in virtually all of our communities, Mr. Speaker, for something that comes out of a plastic receptacle.

Mr. Speaker, former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed is one of the visionaries on this aspect of water management. He has foreseen the way, not just industrialization, but commercialization of water at the consumer level, at the household level, is very much part of what is happening with water these days. I don't know whether he can lay claim to it, but somebody out there has said that water is the world's next oil. That is very much the case.

In fact, the value that is put on it, people like Mr. Lougheed say is that water will become more valuable than oil. We can get along without a lot of things that oil provides. We can find substitutes for it, but, Mr. Speaker, there is no substitute at the end of the day for water.

It's interesting to look at the values. Today you can go just about anywhere here in Yellowknife. One survey that we took tells us that we can buy a litre of bottled water for $1.29. But I can go to the gas pump out at the Co-op, Mr. Speaker, and I could buy a litre of gasoline for less, for $1.09. What does that tell us about the value we are putting on water, at least in this rather weird and perverse way of being able to buy the stuff out of the bottle instead of trusting what we can get out of the tap, at least here in the Northwest Territories?

Mr. Speaker, 9 percent of the world's fresh water is in our jurisdiction. My colleague Ms. Lee has already asked about jurisdiction -- Mrs. Groenewegen -- and I talked about it in my Member's statement earlier today. The Minister, Mr. McLeod -- and I accept his candour -- wasn't really able to say where are the deciding or the defining lines and jurisdiction in the environment between us and DIAND. It's one of those murky questions that's out there. We had better get on that, Mr. Speaker. We had better get on that and figure that out really quickly if we are going to know where we can go and where we need to push the case. Mr. Speaker, 10 percent of the world's fresh water is here in the Northwest Territories. That's one out of every 10 litres here in the NWT. Yet our population base is so small that for every 150,000 people in the world, there is one of us. So if we look at it in that ratio, one to 10 versus one to 150,000, it gives me a sense of just how much responsibility we have as the stewards of this amazing resource to make sure that we do not just do our best but that we excel, we exceed, we go beyond what we just need to look after it for ourselves and then make sure we show that example for the world.

That also raises, Mr. Speaker, the spectre that if we have this much of the world's fresh water, that there are going to be people very, very interested in whether or not they can have some of it too. We have already talked about the appetite, the insatiable appetite for water resources for northern Alberta to tap its resources. We are also warned

by people like Mr. Lougheed and others who look at resources and commodities on not just a national but international basis and we know that the water we have north of the 49th parallel is going to become more and more attractive to our American neighbours. This is something, Mr. Speaker, that we in this Assembly and I hope our neighbours in the provinces and the federal government are looking at with every intensity, every seriousness, every aggressive action we can bring to the table, Mr. Speaker.

There are some people who would even say agreements that are already in place among provinces may not stand up to a Charter test under the NAFTA agreement. The North American Free Trade Agreement may not protect Canada's waters from the demands of other countries like the United States. I really don't want to think too much about the day when somebody comes and says thanks a lot for the water in Great Slave Lake and the mighty Deh Cho River, Great Bear Lake; we can take it because back in the '80s or '90s, somebody signed a deal that said we could. I don't want to think about that day. I think it's incumbent on all of us to do everything we can to make sure that it never, ever happens. That is where I think we, as legislators, Mr. Speaker, have a solemn and urgent duty on behalf of ourselves and our children to protect these waters that right now we are able to take almost for granted. This is one reason we should stop doing that and never again look at this as a gift that we don't have to worry too much about. It's time to start worrying. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. To the motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to thank the Minister -- the Member for Thebacha; I apologize to the Member -- for this motion here. Mr. Speaker, this motion here has significant impacts on my thinking here and also on my people back in my region. Mr. Speaker, this motion speaks to the very soul and essence of the aboriginal people, the Dene and the Metis in the region, but also to many people down the Mackenzie Valley and the Northwest Territories' other regions. Water is the very blood of the people I represent. Actually, in our words, one of our elders was talking about the word "Dene" and one of the elders said if you say it properly, when we say Dene we say people, but one of the elders said it's not really the proper language. I couldn't really understand what he was saying. Mr. Speaker, the elder said we say "Dene" and it means land and water. That's who we are as people in our language, land and water.

It's so important that people down from the border right to the Beaufort Sea use this water and sometimes we take the water for granted. We have so much of it and we are a small population, but our land is so rich in water, land and resources that sometimes we take advantage of it and sometimes we take it for granted. When we look at other areas such as Australia and other areas across this world, we say look how pitiful they are. They have to fight for the water. They even have to recycle their water. We take it for granted that we have all this clean water and we take it for granted. I take it for granted that it's going to be there for my children and my children's children.

It goes back to that one time and place in Fort Norman -- now it's called Tulita -- when I went to the band hall and I listened and talked to some elders. Paul Wright was talking about the water. I didn't think it had much significance in what he was saying. Today, I am looking at it. Changes to the land and water are also changes to the people.

Mr. Speaker, the development that is happening in Alberta and other jurisdictions has an impact to us in the Sahtu region and also, as I said, in other regions. We can't wish and pretend it doesn't have an impact when it does have an impact.

So, Mr. Speaker, I would like to say, by supporting this motion, we have to start paying attention to some of our decision-makers that are making decisions on our behalf. There are six parties involved in the Mackenzie River Basin Board. Some of these decisions are not in our best interest as they proclaim they are in our best interest. These boards are more almost, I hate to say, pro-development. You are looking at something that is more beneficial to industry than to the users of our land here and the impact on our water.

I want to say that I hope by making this motion and it being heard across the North, that we make enough noise to have these regulators look at the decisions that will be impacting our people in the future here. When it comes down to the right for water, it's part of our basic bloodline in who we are as people here.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say on behalf of our people, Mr. Lafferty has indicated that elders are watching us as legislators and how we protect ourselves and what do we do to make sure that the very essence of water and this right to have water in our land be not tampered with. We know in the future it will always be here for us just like the air that we breathe. I look at it in terms of how we are going to leave this issue for our children. Our children are asking about this for the future. What have we done for them in terms of protecting this issue?

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I wanted to say that I hope in the future we have enough water that is forever and ever and not to rely so much on the bottled water that we can buy in the stores here. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, am fully in support of the motion and its importance to the people who we represent. I would like to thank the mover and the seconder for their work and committee's work on bringing the motion forward to the House today.

Much has been said of the importance of water. I know history will tell us wars have actually been fought over water and it's not completely inconceivable that some day, someone who doesn't have water is going to come here looking to take our water from us. This is a very important matter, Mr. Speaker.

Also some of my colleagues have been talking about some of the developments in adjacent jurisdictions where the impact on water or the ecosystem, such as development in the Fort McMurray area with the tar

sands, maybe a hydro project on the Slave River, things like this that impact residents and people who live here in the Northwest Territories can't be taken lightly by this government. We have to get a seat at the table. We have to get a seat at the table. We have to demand a seat at the table and we have to be there to stand up for the people who we are here to represent. I think oftentimes we take a backseat to the federal government. Mr. Speaker, the federal government doesn't live in the Northwest Territories. We live here. We should be responsible for our environment. We should be responsible for our water. We should be able to look after our own affairs. Again, we take a backseat far too often to the federal government who try to take control of us from Ottawa. It's time again. The government is moving in the right direction, but we haven't gotten to where we need to get to. We aren't even close, Mr. Speaker.

Again, I just wanted to say I do fully support the motion that is before us and I echo the comments my colleagues made earlier. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. To the motion. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I, too, fully support this motion that is in front of us today on the right to water. You know, we talk about the right to access water, lakes and rivers. Once it's all contaminated from industries, construction and whatnot, the activity that is happening in our backyard and God knows how many will come forward down the road, a decision is always being made from the feds onto us to say you guys have to accept it.

But one cannot hunt or trap in the impacted areas. We have always heard over the years from the elders, protect your land, protect your wildlife and protect water especially. We canoe down towards the Lac de Gras area, the Tlicho areas, towards the Sahtu and Gwich'in areas. Our ancestors have travelled on their journeys throughout the regions. We call it...(English not provided)...This means all those old birchbark canoes that were made traditionally by hand with spruce gum to patch it together.

Over the years, people have not feared drinking water from the lake until this day. At the same time, mining is happening in our backyard. (English not provided)...is the uranium mine back in the early '40s. That is in our backyard. People are afraid to go into that area. They are afraid to drink water, but the canoe journeys are along that area, whether it be Whati or Gameti. Whenever we cross the path, everybody is thinking that is contaminated; don't go near that area.

So when we talk about access to water, that's our precious water that we must protect. We sit around the table here as government Members. We must think of that as well when we are dealing with our livelihood. I call it our livelihood because that's our passage of water and we know for a fact that international, nationally, Canada-wide, people are desperate for clear, fresh clean water and we do have that in the North here. We have to protect it.

As I indicated, there has been a canoe journey for hundreds of years in our region going to different regions as well. This year, we are going to have a big assembly in Behchoko where our three outlying communities will be journeying with canoes again, a week-long journey. Along the way, we will certainly be drinking water, making tea, coffee and whatnot. We are hoping that...I shouldn't say hope, but this will be a direction where we will continue the journey. We will continue to drink fresh water from the lake.

When the industries or commercial activities come into play, we should be given the first priority to say this is our water and we have to protect our water. As Mr. Miltenberger indicated, a commodity. We have to keep in mind that water is the first priority. It's not only us that live off of it; animals in the wild do too.

We have to protect that and I am glad this motion was brought forward. Again, I support this motion. Mahsi.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. To the motion. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think first I will compliment all of my colleagues. They have pretty well said most of what I was going to say. I wasn't going to say as much as they were, but everyone spoke quite eloquently about how important water is. The only area that really wasn't touched, although it was started, is what do we do without water and it's kind of a puzzling question. I don't know where we can go. Water is one of those amazing elements out there. You know, we need air and lights and stuff, but water is just one of the profound things that we are challenged to imagine for a moment what do we do without water. I guess it's something that we have to define today is how important and how critical it is. If we can define that, then we can say, well, water needs to be principally available for everyone in a fair way, we need to strive to bring those lessons forward.

One of my colleagues mentioned war, and it's true. People have gone to war over love, over hate, they've gone to war over power and land, for rocks that they don't even care about, but someday the challenge of the future really may be water. I mean the respect of our water may be a challenge. Today this Assembly is defining water needs to be an important role. We've heard people talk about how their elders have always said its an essence of who they are, that can't be overstated in any way and it's the truth, it really is, it's who we are.

Mr. Speaker, today we talk about the basics of who we are. Water is a principle of life and I'm glad to see that we're at least talking about it, because someday this discussion will come where water will be a shortage and we're going to ask ourselves what did we do about it or how did we think about it at the time. It's days like today we at least get the discussion out there to set a course about relevant issues. This is a relevant issue. It may be even a defining issue eventually, but I'm glad this House is taking it into some type of a discussion, as well as a serious note. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause