Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As my colleagues in this Assembly know, the job of an MLA is not an easy one. Our job is to represent the interests of our constituents and to build consensus, especially when you come from a constituency that is split on a matter of great importance such as this.

I just wanted to go over a few things as well. Devolution is about self-determination and self-government. I know that Members have said that devolution has been on the books for 20-some-odd years, but just a little bit of history. Since the NWT joined Confederation in 1870, I think that first meeting, if you read Hansard, they’re talking about devolving more power to the NWT even back then. Since then, many provinces have been carved from the great Northwest Territories and have gone on to be fully provinces of their own.

When I’m deciding over devolution, I’m going to be voting with my heart and conviction for the people in the communities and all the elders that are behind me. It’s no secret that the Dehcho have concerns about devolution. The leadership does not want anything in devolution to negatively impact the Dehcho Process for resolving the Aboriginal title and self-government issues.

As MLA for Nahendeh and as a Dene person myself, I share these priorities too. The language in the document speaks a lot that Aboriginal and Treaty rights will continue to be constitutionally protected. As well, current self-government negotiations will not be impacted if, in fact, there

are further lands that, say, the Dehcho want to negotiate. I think at that time there is provision, as well, to increase any boundaries that agreed up and take those lands back from the Northwest Territories.

Earlier in the House, I spoke in my Member’s statement about the community of Nahanni Butte. I think that’s my focus. I don’t want my communities and my residents to lose out on any of the benefits. I urge the Nahendeh communities and the leadership to carefully consider the merits of devolution. There are many benefits that they can use for positive development of their communities.

Just thinking back as I’ve done my spring tour in the Nahendeh riding this spring, I tried to convey to my constituents and to the leadership. I think in 1985, when we were a full Dene Nation then, we were negotiating a deal with Interprovincial Pipelines, which is now known as Enbridge Pipeline, for a portion of ownership for that pipeline. For whatever reason, it was rejected. The numbers varied, but the number I remember is about 5 percent ownership in that pipeline. The Aboriginal group at that time said no, we will hold out for more. Consequently, the federal government, based on national interest, approved the pipeline, and the pipeline was built. Now they look back, and the 5 percent interest was about $1 million a year, Mr. Speaker. It’s in excess of 30 years, so all that revenue is gone for the communities and the residents that we could have used to develop and build our communities.

I think we are faced with the same thing in the Deh Cho. It seems now if the Dehcho First Nation says no, the communities will not have access to that additional revenue to build their communities. So I’m in a bit of a quandary right now. That’s why I stand up here and say we really have to consider this. For myself as MLA representing my constituents, I do not want us to lose out again.

As much as they said in the media in the communities about losing land, the federal government is giving land to the Northwest Territories. Yes, they are. We come from a long, proud history of a trapping economy, and that’s using the land. By owning the resources and the land, we can still use the land to generate an economy. Now, that’s the resources that we depend on that my parents told me about and my grandparents told me about.

As well, when we talk about devolution, I think about it as well as decentralization: a huge opportunity to get jobs out of Yellowknife into the communities and into the regions. As well, there is talk about additional revenue and creating infrastructure. Infrastructure should not only be built in Yellowknife but it should be built in the regional centres as well. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We’ve got lots of legislation ahead of us.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I’m truly in favour of stopping the flow of resource revenues out of our territory, and I stand here today and say I will be supporting the motion on devolution. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.