Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand proudly to second this bill and thank my colleagues from the other side to allow this to happen.
I do want to say, in keeping with the spirit of the Deline Got’ine people, that what they have done is historical. The visions of the people are coming to realization. We don’t know what’s going to happen and it’s because of the elders in their wisdom and the guidance of us young leaders that they tell us how to go about and how to live our life. Sometimes we don’t quite understand from our culture, but our elders have guided this team for over 18 years or longer to this place here. You are setting a government, a model, for all of the other communities to look at. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but you stuck together and you worked as one, one people, one vision, one voice. It is like you’re drumming. Sometimes our songs are not quite the same until you play for a long time together and then it comes to be one song, one drum beat, and that’s what the Deline people have done. They worked hard together. This is for their children now to take these tools and for this government to work.
In life you have to negotiate what you want and you stick strong to your beliefs, strong to your faith. It
takes all kinds of people, governments, our government, the federal government. There are people that are no longer with us who are in another world who we think about.
So I want to say to the Deline leadership, to the negotiators, to our negotiators, to the federal government negotiators and to the people of the Northwest Territories that anything worthwhile is not easy. Anything good like this is very, very difficult, very, very hard. Like an elder said, “Whoever said life was easy, come over and tell me that. I want to talk to that person who said life was easy.” Then they talk to that person.
So for the Deline government, you’ve done it, you’ve shown people, you’re the trailblazers, there’s hope for our people. You’ve given us hope. Twenty years ago we never thought this would be possible.
So I want to say again, thank you very much to the Members of the Assembly here for this historical day, going through this process. You have done it, you have set the trail for us, you have set the standards. God bless you. Work hard as you continue to make your government strong, make it strong for your young grandchildren, their children and all your people.
In closing, continue to listen to your elders and to your prophets. It will be a good life. So, mahsi cho. It is a good day today, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi cho.