Mr. Speaker, I think this also reflects more on the idea of devolution. People of the North who call us — those born here, raised here; those who moved here and now call it home — have more say in how we do things in the North. This Assembly can direct how we spend the budget dollars we approve in this Assembly. This Assembly, Members of this Assembly, not just me, can say if we should in fact aggressively pursue an agriculture policy that the Member spoke about earlier and put that in place and if we should be part of the fish marketing group or if we should step out on our own and develop our own economy in that way.
Again, the North is riddled with history here, where we took independent people, who were able to fend for themselves and provide for themselves, and developed programs because somebody from outside of the Territories and the country said, “You need to change things; don’t do it that way anymore,” and our fur trapping industry went down. It shut down vibrant economies and communities in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, while that was happening, the people adapted and started going to a wage economy. Now we are saying: “Wait a second. Let’s not look into that economy. Let’s look at other things.” I agree we need to look at other things, and this
Assembly through the membership here has the authority to direct in these areas.