Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to first rise and begin with something that I keep hearing about. I hear about all these southerners, and certainly I’m going to say this westerner, and when I say westerner, I’m actually referring to the Member of Parliament for the Yukon, and these southerners I sometimes refer to as these Albertans, and all I ever hear about is how much

they want to make us like the Yukon. I have to tell you, I like the Yukon. I enjoy visiting there. I like the people there. I like the feel of the Yukon, but I don’t want to be the Yukon, and I wish people from Alberta and the Yukon would say you’d be better if you were like the Yukon. We’re Northerners. Yes. We share that. We’re brothers, sisters, friends, relatives, all those good things, but let them do business their way, no different than why we want Bill C-15 for the devolution portion. We want to do business our way, you know. No different.

People in Ottawa, if you’re listening – and I know you are – stop trying to make me and the rest of the Northwest Territories like the Yukon. I’m kind of getting tired of hearing that, because I think they have every right to be like themselves and I think we deserve every right to be like ourselves, so I wish they would stop that comparison about saying we’ve lost our way and things would be better if we were the Yukon. Well, please, nothing irritates me more.

When we first started off talking about devolution when I came in 2003, it was this distant dream. In 2007 it was off the table, then it was on the table, and now in this Assembly it’s not only on the table, we’re almost there. But when we talked about devolution, and certainly before this House, we talked about it in the context of assuming powers and responsibilities, but I don’t recall us ever having the chance to sit down, roll up our sleeves and say if you agree with the devolution portion, you’re now being served this, which is the reorg of these boards. Now, I understand why the Inuvialuit support it, because they get to keep their board. They get to do business their way. I can tell you I understand why the Gwich’in don’t want it, and I can understand why the Tlicho don’t want it, and I can understand why the Dehcho are concerned about it, and I can go on. They don’t want it. Many Aboriginal groups have fought very hard for their land claims, and I certainly respect that, and not just because it’s constitutionally protected, because it’s right, and that’s the difference is because it’s right. Is it because it’s protected? That just reaffirms why it’s important.

Now, signing this Devolution Agreement, yes, it makes sense. We have to follow the ability to do home rule, as I’ve called it many times, and I’m glad other people are calling it now, because that’s what it is. But by allowing this we’re forgetting why there were issues with the review board. What were they? Well, they were all linked to the federal government. Appointments weren’t made. Appointments weren’t made in a timely manner. They weren’t resourced. Decisions weren’t signed off. This is why this motion is here before us, is because the board itself could be working, could have been working and functioning very well, but yet, at the same time, it was being denied its ability

to do the work it could have been doing. It was doing good work.

I ask this House and I challenge anyone to show me an application for development that they ever refused. There wasn’t any. They all found a way to work with industry. They have good, honest people with good intentions to provide opportunities for Northerners to work in partnership with industry to find a way so we can all achieve the same thing. Prosperity for everyone. Those are good things. But yet the federal government has decided, through its wisdom, that everything was going awry. The problems they’re trying to fix are the ones they created by not resourcing the board, by not making the appointments in a timely way, by not doing what they were obligated to do.

It frustrates me, as a resident of the Northwest Territories that this second half of the C-15 bill was served up with the first half. Although I don’t normally agree with our parliamentarian Mr. Bevington, I do agree with his concept about splitting the bill. Many people share that perspective. It’s a very frustrating one to see. It’s two issues.

When I was in Inuvik in January, I had Senator Patterson lecture me about, oh, don’t worry, in 10 years you’ll be phoning me, he said, and saying you’re sorry, you were right, we should have done things this way. He told me. I think he’s wrong. I think in 10 years he’s going to be phoning me and telling me we were wrong and we should have listened to you, and the reason we should have listened to you is pointed out by people like Member Bisaro, and certainly highlighted passionately by folks like Member Nadli is the fact that people have these boards, they’re connected to them, they’re the regional boards. People are taking care of their land. What better way of doing this by ensuring that these regions are in touch with the modern issues that are affecting them at that day. I know no one more connected to the region than the people who govern, who belong there, where their ancestry pulled them towards those regions.

I don’t think we’re serving territorial citizens better. I think we’re serving the platform of the particular government in Ottawa better by only doing it this way, because they perceive there’s a problem with the system. There is no…