Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to talk about the issue of devolution and the importance of this issue here in the Northwest Territories. In our communities we are not hearing enough on it. For example, once devolution, whenever it gets completed to a final deal, will it be a vote throughout the Northwest Territories to say yes, people in the North want this deal to go through, or will it be like in the last government where seven Cabinet Ministers said this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to sign it with the

majority of the Aboriginal governments not participating or wanting our government to sign on to negotiate towards a final agreement?

Devolution is one way to bring the Northwest Territories to a legitimate government. Right now we’re an orphan of the federal government. We have to ask them to borrow money to get us most of the resources. Devolution is a way that we take some of these resources and use it to operate ourselves.

However, the key component to a devolution deal is to involve the real landowners: the Aboriginal governments. The legitimate government that was negotiated through the land claim agreements that was negotiated in the ‘20s through the treaties, had those treaties been kept up by the federal government would have been in a better shape by our relationship. The elders tell us when those treaties were negotiated, many promises were broken. As to the existing land claim agreements now, we can start to see the cracks being open in our agreements with the land and water boards.

I want to ask the government, Premier, how we are going to solidify, produce a solid partnership with Aboriginal governments through this devolution file. I will have questions for the Premier later on.