Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was said by our Premier that land is life and it is so true in the Northwest Territories. Because of our issues in the Sahtu, land is life and certainly our elderly people know that this is so true. From the land we get power, a way of life, we put food on our tables and we build our homes. Everything comes from the land. When we think about it and listen to our elders, even when we go outside to do our work,
they always tell us to make it protocol to go out there and thank the land and the water. Before you do anything, remember where you come from.
It’s so ingrained in us that it’s a struggle sometimes with today’s economy and the way of life we have, but we need to come together and talk about the changes that are happening in our lives today.
We have a controversial issue, such as the economic development that’s happening in the Sahtu region. People are wondering what type of mechanisms, what type of assurances we’ll have to protect our land and our water and our air and our animals. Yet at the same time, we know changes are happening as we speak today and people are also wondering: what are the older people, the elders, saying about this? We should be able to get together with our elders and talk about our land and our water and our air with the young people and see how we can work things out in the North, up in the Sahtu region, and look at what land is going to be doing for us.
I will have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources on the land and water in the North. Thank you.