Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Premier. I think one of the methodologies I would like to see this House adopt is full cost accounting. When we look at the cost of climate change and the cost of allowing our greenhouse gas emissions to continue to climb -- I think we’ve doubled, almost tripled them in the last decade -- we need to recognize the costs that go along with those. For example, the increasing cost of infrastructure, school roofs caving in and so. Will the Premier commit to full cost accounting in all government processes involving the expenditure of funds from now on? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up a little bit on the Deh Cho Bridge, if I could. As everybody knows, climate change is going to affect our food, it’s going to affect our caribou, our fish; many of these are already declining or changing their patterns of behaviour. It’s going to affect our waterways, our water quality. It’s affecting our infrastructure and, of course, our budgets and so on. Transportation causes over half of our greenhouse gas emissions. What consideration -- and I don’t know whether this is legitimate to look at the past here or what -- has been given to climate change impacts in the design of the bridge, and has there been consideration or will you give consideration to making sure that there’s a train trestle as part of the design of the bridge as an important way of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to begin with a quote from the Earth Charter, issued in 2000:

“We stand at a critical moment in the earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.”

Mr. Speaker, I’m very concerned about climate change and some of our environmental challenges. But as brought out in this Earth Charter statement, I am also very excited about the possibilities and the promise that’s offered in the solutions to some of these things. It’s going to take some new thinking. It’s going to take some new ways of doing things. I heard on the radio the other day where it looks like we’re a government with no change. I’m hoping that’s not true because I see a real need to do some things differently. We have now entered the point where there is an irreversible degree of climate change. Even if we stopped our greenhouse gas emissions today we couldn’t stop climate change. But we’re not at the point of dangerous climate change, as they call it, where our losses really soar. So we have a window of opportunity here and I’m really looking forward to bringing some ideas of how we can work on solutions to that. In particular, I’ve heard the word balance between development and the environment; we need to restore balance. This is clearly happening because we are out of balance, and I’m looking forward to some creative ideas of how we restore balance.

I know this has been raised throughout many discussions already that we’ve had, both informally and formally, and there’s will on both sides of the House to get to work on this. I think we can do this by drawing on local resources and local skills in new ways to meet many of our needs and address many of the things Mrs. Groenewegen was mentioning here, her list. It’s just how we do things and we can do that in ways that benefit all our residents and our northern environment and the global environment. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, I can’t see a lot of the folks behind me, but I know there must be a lot of folks from Weledeh there.

---Laughter

There are also the other people that are attending today. I would like to express my appreciation and recognition of them participating in this process. Thank you very much.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to begin with congratulations to you, Mr. Speaker, and to our new Premier and Cabinet-about-to-be for their selections to these key leadership positions. I know that these responsibilities are not lightly earned and it is clear that they bring many skills; you bring many skills and much experience and knowledge to these jobs.

I am highly honoured to be representing and working on behalf of the people and interests of Weledeh in the Northwest Territories. I thank the voters and have pledged my dedication to them. I express appreciation to all those who contributed to the Weledeh election campaign by putting their names forward to run for election. I know much better now how much of a contribution to our society and our democracy this represents.

I thank my family, in particular my wife, Marianne, who kept me healthy and sane, as she promised she would. To my mother, Barb Bromley, who participated in many ways; to my sister, Maxine Avery; my brother, Chris Bromley, and his wife, Cleo; and all the other members of my family, my nephews and nieces and brothers and so on, all of whom reside in Weledeh.

Mr. Speaker, I’m humbled by the amazing support, skills, time and contributions that I received from my campaign team. I recognize that they gave up considerable time from family and personal lives, from our fall harvesting season, and time from their working lives for my campaign.

Weledeh has an incredible diversity of cultures. I would particularly like to thank my translators: Mary Rose Sundberg, Mary Rose Dryneck, Bernadette Martin, France Benoit, Batiste Foisy, and Louis Azzolini. Through their good work, my Weledeh campaign served to build community and relationships using local skills and local resources. Many local businesses participated. Even our buttons were manufactured by a budding entrepreneur in Weledeh. Events in the riding featured local food, like white fish, and local entertainment by skilled musicians. This was a wee demonstration of sustainable living.

In closing, I’m looking very much forward to working with all Members of this House. Thank you.

---Applause