Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to, as well, take a few minutes to talk briefly to the principle of this bill, which I consider a very good bill. It is unprecedented in terms of the length of time it’s taken, the amount of work, the amount of money, the amount of effort and the process used to get us to this day. I would like to acknowledge the work, of course, of the working group and the staff of the department who are still working, and in many cases have often worked themselves to near exhaustion because we’re a very small operation and we have some of the best people in the business.

I’ve heard lots of questions: where, where are the answers? The answers are here in this House and the bill you have on the desk before you. That is where the proof is. That is where the test is. That we will give you the minutes. We will give you the feedback from across the land, but that is almost incidental at this point, because the product now is

here. The proof is here and we are prepared to bring it to this House and have it stand that test.

I can assure you that I don’t think committee members are any more eager to have committee go on the road than I am. I can hardly wait for committee to go on the road, to go and talk to the people, to look at all the work that’s been done. As has been said, you can take it apart word by word, clause by clause and I’m convinced it will stand the test.

We will travel with committee. We will work with committee. Committee will have access to every scrap of paper, every bit of work that’s been done. Anything that the committee needs to do their job fully will be provided.

I also want to point out that in this bill, as it’s been taken out and as it has developed, there has been a lot of talk, a lot of things said, and a lot of concerns raised. Many issues, I believe, are mixed. We’re mixing and putting on the back of this Wildlife Act concerns about development. We have a Sustainable Development Policy that lays out very clearly the position of this government. It is not the purpose of a Wildlife Act to set out how we do development. There are other places like the Sustainable Development Policy, and we just announced and all celebrated the fact that the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline got the thumbs up today. We have to separate some of these issues and look clearly at what the purpose of the Wildlife Act is.

It is a good bill and there will be lots of discussion; there has been already. The recognition of who’s going to be involved at the table to manage, the difference between rights and privileges. There are things we have built in and we consider absolutely fundamental to this government as territorial residents. As Canadian residents, Section 35 says very clear things. We have land claims, self-government agreements, treaties. Those are enshrined. They have paramountcy and they have a clear place in the work that’s before you. We also recognize that there are many issues to deal with resident hunters, but the right to hunt and harvest is a privilege. We have to be clear about that distinction.

We will work on all the ways to make sure that this bill is the best bill possible. I believe that it is, for the most part, there. I look forward to the work of this committee. I look forward to this bill coming back. We’ll have an opportunity to make amendments and adjustments that we can, hopefully, collectively agree on and bring this bill back into the House whenever the committee says it’s ready, either May or August, but our goal has to be in the life of this Assembly to have this bill finally, finally a northern, made-in-the-north, tailored to the Northwest Territories bill that deals with the wildlife issues, that deals with unmet obligations under Section 35 finally, finally addressed. Thank you.