Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m also very pleased to be sitting here and speaking to the bill, Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act. Madam Chair, my comments will be short to this specific bill.
This bill, as the Premier indicated, is the first stand-alone community self-government agreement in the Northwest Territories. It’s an historical moment for the people of Deline, for the team that worked on it from the Deline Got’ine, from the Northwest Territories negotiating team and also from the federal government negotiating team.
Mr. Premier talked about the effect of the Deline Tax Agreement that we will have the Deline Got’ine Government take as part of their own government. This bill also, in the history of the Northwest Territories, is setting precedence for the Mackenzie Valley. As you know, Tulita and Colville Lake and Kasho Got’ine, Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells are also negotiating their own self-government agreements as per the Sahtu Comprehensive Dene-Metis Land Claim Agreement and these land claim agreements in our region, in the Sahtu region, give specific provisions for a community self-government agreement.
I want to congratulate the GNWT team members and to congratulate the good, hard work of the Deline negotiators and team and to the federal government. To make it to this point where we are today, we’re making history in the Northwest Territories by bringing it through our process. I wanted to say that when we get to another part of this important document, hopefully today, later on after third reading, I will do a formal thank you through a statement to the good people up in Deline as well as the negotiators and the team.
I do want to say to the Premier it takes a lot to be a trailblazer. Trailblazers, they have a vision, they have a team working with them and they do what they have to do. I take this agreement, this self-government agreement to a time when I, along with George Cleary, who was the president of the Sahtu Tribal Council, when we first started to work on a Sahtu regional land claim. Part of the deal, part of the package was a section in there, self-government, that George Barnaby, who at that time was self-government negotiator, said to me at that time in 1992, ’93, that each one of us leaders in time in history have to hold a sign. He said mine is self-government. I was young, and I’m still pretty young yet, in heart anyhow, not realizing then in 1992, ’93, ’94, that 20 years later we will see an agreement like this. We didn’t realize that when we were negotiating. George Cleary was our president. He played a significant part in this agreement we’re doing now, but there are lots of people also in around and from Deline who also played a significant role in where we’re at today. It’s amazing. I just want to say that.
In ’93 we did not think this would come about, with the territorial government, the colleagues on the other side, they were making things happen. It takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of dedication. I want to ask the Premier, with this agreement, is this the agreement that the Deline people now will have their own stand-alone government that we would treat them as a territorial government, as a government and look at them as a government in that sense as the federal government looks at the territory as a government to be respected and talked to in a manner of government-to-government relationship. That’s the question I have for Mr. Premier in regards to this bill here.
I want to say also to the people in Deline, when we settled the Sahtu Land Claim congratulations to them for taking this chapter in writing it and recreating their history. Nothing is easy and working towards an agreement like this says a lot about the people. It says a lot about the families that they come from. They come from very good people, very strong people. They come from very good leaders to make this happen.
Those are my opening comments to this agreement. I’m very pleased. I would never have thought in my wildest dreams, being a negotiator and sitting with George Cleary and the other negotiators, that I would be here today to witness the good, hard work by a lot of good people and to see that this chapter is coming full circle. To all the young people and young leaders who are coming up from Deline or any other communities, anything in life is possible if you put your mind to it and you have faith in God or the Creator or whatever. Anything is possible. Don’t ever, ever, ever give up on your dreams and your vision. Anything is possible if you have good leadership, good direction. Here amongst my colleagues here, we’re witnessing the creation of a new government. I never thought that, going to school in Inuvik, that we’re part of this, putting a new government together. I thought always that was for outside people. But you know what? Good things come from inside.
I want to say that this bill here is a new path. I always said that in order to get to the Promised Land you always had to negotiate your way through the wilderness. I always said that. To think that people in Deline have negotiated their way to the Promised Land, that’s what I think this Deline Self-Government Agreement will do for them. They’re leaders, and I must take my hat off to thank them, because I know it’s tougher to be the first in line and to be out of the door. Just like we have good athletes, like I said before, or a gold medalist, they know what it takes to get a gold medal. This is a gold medal deal.
That’s all I want to say. Congratulations, again, to the Premier and your team and colleagues around this table here for allowing this to happen. I really appreciate it. I really thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for allowing this day to happen in this fashion. Congratulations, Deline.