Mr.
Speaker, the Western
Premiers’ Conference, as I was saying earlier, is one that I felt went very well for the Northwest Territories. To have our issues part of the communications package that went out from that meeting across Canada does a number of things. It
raises our level of interest. It sends a message to the federal government. The next steps for us from the Western Premiers’ Conference would be on issues that we feel would be encouraged by further bringing them to the Council of the Federation — that is, all the Premiers across the country — and then coming up with a specific plan or actions that we would go to the federal government.
A number of these initiatives are ongoing. The western Premiers themselves are setting up areas that they’re inviting other jurisdictions to become a part of their practice and join on to the work that’s being done. In our case, because we’re a small partner in this, we can join on some programs or we can work out an initiative that’s going to be supported by other provinces and Premiers as we go forward. For example, the wind energy piece: we know there’s technology there, but it’s been problematic in the North because of the cold winters and our climate. So here’s an avenue where they’ve come behind us to support us and look at initiatives that we may be able to become a part of.