Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last couple days I’ve had some pretty early mornings thinking about how the motion is going to be discussed, and how it’s going to be talked about amongst the 18 MLAs in the House here, and what the interpretations might be in the public in terms of what we are looking at and what we are doing. What are the different analyses of the meetings? What are the interpretations of the meetings? How will this play out in our communities? How will this play out amongst ourselves? Looking to this day as to how it will roll out.

The motion, as I read it, is a strong signal to this leadership, specifically to the Executive Council, about the sentiments, the thoughts and feelings from the MLAs who are considered the Regular MLAs. This motion wasn’t something that came overnight. The other Members have talked about and I had thought about this and had a discussion with Mr. Roland yesterday as to is this salvageable. Is this something we can fix? I was thinking, where in our life did we get to a point that this motion has to be on the floor. Something we could have done.

I had some e-mails saying don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. So I was thinking that day where in our system that it got to this point.

This motion is speaking to that point. I don’t know if it’s pride. I don’t know if it’s blaming. I’m not too sure if it’s the recent briefing that we got on Discovery Air or the additional information we got from the Ministers on this Opportunities Fund that says okay, that’s it, or maybe other factors.

It’s about leadership that Members talk about; the strong signal to leadership. It’s all of us. We operate in a very unique system; a system that Members on this side are the majority and the Executive Council is the minority. This is what this motion maybe is signalling to the people of the Northwest Territories, that consensus government is strong and alive, that the people in the Northwest Territories need to know that we need to work together. They have told us: work together. Our elders have told us: work together.

Twenty years ago the Sahtu Tribal Council in Deline, Fort Franklin at that time, us young leaders, we were fighting amongst ourselves. Maybe this is déjà vu, but elders stopped us in that meeting and the elders scorned us as young leaders rising up and helping the people in the Sahtu region. They actually put us in our place. We went back to work again. Hard feelings were set amongst ourselves in the Sahtu region. Thank God for the elders that told us what we needed to hear even though we didn’t want to hear it. That’s part of our culture. That’s what we bring into this Assembly here. We bring those values, those upbringings into the Assembly.

My comments to this motion from a small community is that there needs to be, as the Minister indicated in his territorial budget, a storm. There’s got to be a shaking in terms of how we respond to the people in our communities. It’s got to be a real hard shake in terms of this is what we’re going to do for our people in our communities, because we still lack the basic infrastructure of health care. Our people are still being diagnosed months, years after they have seen the hospital with cancer, leukemia, other sicknesses, something basically is wrong. We’re just not getting the work done. Cabinet has indicated through many good proposals about what they’re going to do. Fair enough. Not all programs and services can be equal across the Northwest Territories because of numbers and economics, but there’s got to be some basic services to be brought about amongst our discussions to say yes, when we go into one of the communities, you can have this service here, not every six weeks, not every three months, but you can have this basic service.

Elders in our communities have talked about things that they want. Dust control is one. Why are elders going to Wal-Mart and buying filters in the summertime, putting them in the house and changing them because of the amount of dust? That program was evolved through other means to funding the communities, but we know the communities, they need more than more basic services and they compete against each other. So we allow them to fight amongst themselves to say what do you want.

I think there are some basic services that this government really needs to be serious about. Our education system for example. Elders have talked about how we should improve our education system for our people, but we somehow have to follow the Alberta curriculum. When I was sitting down with an elder the other day, in talking about some of these things, one of the things I researched as to why is it that we have some of our ceremonies passed on by our elders. Couldn’t get it. Mr. Speaker, the reason why we have some of our ceremonies is because it reminds us where we come from, how we grew up in our communities, what makes us unique as a human being, either Dene or a Metis or even a...(inaudible)...that makes us unique. I do know that as an aboriginal person these ceremonies should be taught as mandatory in our schools. I brought up the issue of picking berries. Students picking berries is a very special ceremony. But, no, we compete with this academic curriculum because we have to prepare our children for the future, but we’re not really balancing it properly. I haven’t yet seen from this side that these are core programs that should be in the education system, spring time, fall time, winter and summer. There are certain things that really need to be important. Elders have told me this.

Mr. Speaker, the honourable Member from Nahendeh is correct because we also get questioned on things that we aren’t privy to. Again, on one hand, we have to defend or are put in the position of defending some things that we’re not privy to. We’re not here every day and not in our system, to understand the system, how we work the system. There are very good people across here that work for us. Strong message that we need to work really hard for us, especially in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to Cabinet, people in my region, we are taught many times as to where this government is going to go. We have heard or read mostly about one of my constituents in Norman Wells. I think unofficially she’s the Minister of Transportation of highways. She is so adamant and insistent about talking about something she believes in. Mr. Speaker, there are different opinions as to her comments in the paper. Mr.

Speaker, she is an elder in my region. She is someone that has the belief and the vision that something could get done in the Northwest Territories such as extending the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I guess from our side, I guess from myself, I’d like to fight for something that’s worthwhile fighting for such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I was very disappointed, Mr. Speaker, hearing the federal government not making any mention of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I know this Cabinet has made efforts to get the Prime Minister to see something that could be done, but I think we need strong leadership, regroup as a leadership to push the issues like this. The federal government stands to gain millions and millions from the Northwest Territories and there are opportunities to build the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I think that’s what the message is for Cabinet, as I read this motion. Some basic core services in our communities. I’ve named off a few that could be done, that needs to get done. Other communities that take programs and services for granted, we are desperately fighting in our communities to get. Something’s wrong so something’s got to move. I think it’s a good signal and change is good. I think that opportunities always present themselves. Mr. Speaker, in closing I want to say that I will be supporting the motion.