Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people of the Northwest Territories voted for change in our last election. People are struggling, especially in our small communities. They have no jobs, no hope, no future. They feel that their territorial government is not listening and not responding to their concerns.

Across the NWT, including my riding of Nunakput, we heard the status quo is not working. The government is not doing enough. Our people are counting on them to help. They told us, as MLAs, we should be starting to direct the government, and not a handful of bureaucrats in Yellowknife.

We have heard from Indigenous leaders that the relationship between the GNWT and Indigenous governments is at an all-time low. We have heard from current and former Indigenous leaders that the GNWT is the problem, not the federal government. We have heard that Indigenous governments are not going directly to the territorial government; they're going directly to the federal government in regard to the frustration and despair with the status quo. I heard these sentiments in my riding, when we were meeting with leadership, and when we're bumping into them in Yellowknife.

We are 20 years into the 21^st century, but our approach to the negotiation and implementation of land, resources, and self-government agreements is still from the last century. It is the failed status quo exemplified. The Inuvialuit Final Agreement was signed in 1984 and, to this day, we are still trying to negotiate self-government, Mr. Speaker. That is outrageous. I was 11 years old when they signed that agreement in Tuktoyaktuk, and we're still waiting. The Indigenous governments are seen as adversaries, or, even worse, subordinates, instead of partners in our own land. The GNWT has tried to run things in the territorial level, leaving Indigenous governments, for the most part, as bystanders. We are here today, a cash-strapped government, Mr. Speaker. We have at most no ability to increase our revenues. We can't control our ballooning expenditures. We are out of borrowing room. We spend 64-cent dollars on social programs, yet the social problems keep getting worse. We have growing environmental and climate problems. We have a flat-lined economy, Mr. Speaker. That is inherited status quo for another four more years. The same will put us in the poor house, Mr. Speaker.

The budget numbers and the social, economic, and environmental indicators are harshly clear. We have a mandate of 22 priorities and no real way to pay for those 22 priorities, Mr. Speaker. After 50 years of trying to go alone, our territory, we have shown the territorial government can't go alone. We have to have partnership with Indigenous governments and with our federal government, Mr. Speaker. No government can do that. For us, we think otherwise in self-disillusion if we think that way. Our goal is devolution. The agreement was signed in 2013 for the NWT to take the responsibility of our land, water, resource development, to allow Northerners to build and grow the North. We have not achieved that promise yet, but, Mr. Speaker, we can.

Last October, we met with northern leaders. We've had two breakfast meetings with the Dene Nation, the national chief. The goodwill is there, Mr. Speaker. The interest is working collaboratively together as governments to work together to get things done. The question we need to answer is: how are we going to move forward? Are we going to do a real partnership with them, with one another? At this time, it's time to come to the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Inuvialuit, the Dene, the Metis to set up collaborative leaders to the table to work together for the people, start dealing with the big issues in common interest, of which there are many, Mr. Speaker.

The Intergovernmental Council, the symbolic, non-inclusive, advisory body outlived its usefulness some time ago. The GNWT needs a vision for its future as a territorial government. The vision demands that GNWT give up some jurisdiction and control, Mr. Speaker. There are many compelling issues we can finally start to sort out together. For example, working together in collaboration, we can:

• get more housing units in our communities;
• ensure we never get another negative report on child welfare again from the Auditor General;
• ensure graduation rates are actually for real;
• renew our commitment to strong regions, communities, focus back on decentralization not centralization; and
• create regional energy plans to put micro-grid technology in all diesel communities, all the projects in regional bases to make them economically viable in a timely manner. This is how we will lower energy costs in the communities.

We also need to co-draft crucial legislation on bills like water, forestry, mineral resources, and development, just as we work together on the Wildlife Act and the Species at Risk Act. We can create an expedited process and negotiate land resources, self-government agreements, freeing up over 140,000 kms, resource-rich land possible for development. Working together, we can develop a plan to maximize the benefit of the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link to the communities to facilitate both government and private sector opportunities in Inuvik, to create equity in opportunities for the Indigenous governments.

We can work to identify both revenue expenditures efficiencies across our governments. We need to identify economic opportunities that may become evident once we start working together as governments in settling the land claims. Being an obvious one, a big one for me, Mr. Speaker, is opening up our Beaufort Sea, working with the federal government to get that opened up. That will create jobs. That will make money for our territory, and that's what is needed because we are broke.

Mr. Speaker, we need to have the courage to take this first step towards this real collaborative leadership approach at the territorial level with the Inuvialuit, the Dene, the Metis governments. I am convinced that, once we do this, we will realize the full potential of the 2013 Devolution Agreement, truly start building and growing the NWT, and our territorial budget will look much better than the way it looks now. We can make changes for the best, for the people of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. We have to work together to get it done. Thank you.