Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about devolution and the recent signing of the agreement-in-principle.
Mr. Speaker, this is and will be the way forward for this Territory and for the people who live here. What will devolution mean for our Territory? It will mean authority and control over the direction and decisions related to resource management. It will mean a transfer of close to 200 jobs from Ottawa. It will mean that finally, after years of fighting for a piece of our vast resource wealth with the federal government, we will be getting millions of dollars annually to help build and strengthen our Territory, our communities, our economy and our people. We will finally be able to be the masters of our own design.
Mr. Speaker, we must continue to work with our Aboriginal partners in pursuing a final agreement. I understand and appreciate the concerns that have been expressed by Aboriginal leaders across the Territory in how our AIP has proceeded. I do remain optimistic that we can find a way to work together. We have to move forward, and it should be stated that clearly this AIP is moving this Territory forward. The question, Mr. Speaker, is that once we have a final deal, the jobs, the money and the authority, what are we going to do with this new found money and control?
Mr. Speaker, I, along with my colleague from the Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko, have been part of the Northern Leaders’ Forum representing the Regular Members of this House. The main objective for the Northern Leaders’ Forum is to come up with a way forward on how governments across the Territory can work together and represent our Territory in advancing our collective well-being and to form a common vision for what our Territory will become. Now, more than ever before, Mr. Speaker, we need to be working together. We need to do the best job we can as legislators to articulate what devolution will mean to our Territory. To me, Mr. Speaker, this is what future governments must focus on: sustainable, responsible resource development that maximizes opportunities for training and employment opportunities for our people; developing our vast hydro potential; developing in a real and meaningful way our forest industry; opening up our Territory to the development of the Mackenzie Gas Project and the huge potential for exploration and development of our petroleum
industry, a Territory that leads the way in the management of our water, our wildlife and our environment.