Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You heard my colleagues today. This is a very timely motion to be bringing into the House, especially when we’ve got so many other strong business topics we are dealing with going through the budget process. It’s a very stressful time and you feel that you are almost backed into a corner with federal government legislation and the bills that are coming through. As well, some Members here are coming and talking about wanting to bring this motion through without having really strong discussions.

Over the last few weeks that we’ve been here, we’ve literally been running from meeting to meeting to meeting without giving these very strong concrete discussions on the item and working on what we have to do within government for our own people, our health, our education, our justice.

Today it was a very hard decision to make, but in the short time I’ve been here in the Legislature – about 16 months – I’ve learned a lot. I’ve come here on the concept that I am here to represent the people of my community, but also the people of the Northwest Territories. I’ve always stood behind that. There are a lot of people who do a lot of good work out there in terms of environment, in terms of health, but there are a lot of other people who do a lot of good work in terms of creating jobs, business opportunities, and creating infrastructure in our region and for the Northwest Territories.

Just a little history. When we talk about protecting land and waters, all waters flow down to our region, the Beaufort-Delta, through the Mackenzie River down to the Arctic Ocean, so we would be the ones who would be impacted if there should be some type of disaster happening. We want to protect that. But also in the Beaufort-Delta communities, all you have to see in the past year and a half are all the houses being boarded up, all the jobs, all the people going on income support, and the dire straits that my people are in looking for jobs. They’re looking for a way to put food on the table and to pay the bills.

I respect Mr. Bromley for bringing this motion forward. I respect his expertise, his research, all the work that he does when he brings stuff into the House and the comments that he makes in the House. We don’t always agree on everything, but he does do his homework and he does consult with his constituents.

I also respect Mr. Yakeleya. In the last 16 months that I’ve been here, Mr. Yakeleya has always gone back to his roots, his knowledge, his culture, his traditions, his people. He’s been a big speaker of land and water, and I respect him staying with his traditional values and preaching about them.

I’ve listened to the constituents over the last little while. I’ve heard a lot from people back home, people throughout the Northwest Territories. This is land that our parents grew up on, before there was industry. Our ancestors grew up on this land. It provides food; it provides connection to the land and our traditions and culture.

Last year I was able to attend the 10-day NEB meeting, and listen to the constituents and the people in the Beaufort-Delta region talking about development, talking about stewardship, and making sure we hold our industry accountable, but also hold our governments accountable. It didn’t fall on deaf ears, Mr. Speaker. One strong comment that I did take out of that meeting is the North can be one of the leaders in the world in where we can develop industry in a very responsible and efficient manner.

I know one of the concerns was the timeline and the deadlines on some of these regulations as they happen. I didn’t work in the government, but living in Inuvik, you sat through the whole regulatory process for the Mackenzie Gas Project and that dragged on a very long time. My community and the communities right down the Mackenzie Valley missed out on a great opportunity that would have brought a lot of resource revenues to this territory, and also created a lot of jobs in the Northwest Territories.

We’re here to make tough decisions. As you’ve heard, some of my colleagues have mentioned that the bills have been passed, they are going to work. As I said, it’s very timely that this government is starting to build a strong relationship with the federal government. It just goes to show that with our NWT Days I got to witness it and I got to see our Cabinet Ministers meeting with other federal Ministers and doing a good job for the people of the Northwest Territories, and I respect them for that, for going long days and making the commitment to meet with our federal Ministers.

As I said, this is a very tough one for me. I respect all the work that Mr. Bromley and Mr. Yakeleya have done. I’ve consulted with some constituents and other groups and have listened to what people had to say. As much as I want to support the

concept of this motion, there is wording in the motion that I don’t agree with. I do strongly agree our government is doing the work that it needs to do, and when it comes to those discussions they’ll continue to work and they work in the best interests of our residents, and look at protecting and making sure that our lands and waters that are getting developed are being developed in a very safe manner. We elected them there for that reason.

Today I’m very torn, but when it comes down to the vote on this motion I am going to have to abstain from the vote as in my community I find both sides in terms of the situation we’re going through economically. The sooner we can get work in our region, the less impact it will have on this government in terms of dollars being put into that community and getting our people eating and putting food on the table. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.