Mr. Speaker, honourable Members, Premier, Cabinet Members, I would like to say thank you, first and foremost, to the good Lord above. He has put me in a place of trust within my community and respect amongst my family. I would like to thank my family who stood by me during the election process and continue to do so today, and my supporters who worked very hard during the campaign to put me where I'm standing now. I would especially like to thank the people of Inuvik for their support in sending me to this historical occasion.

As I went on with my campaign, I knew that the years coming up would be difficult for everyone. I told them I stood for people of every colour and nationality. It didn't matter where you came from, what language you spoke or the colour of your skin. At the time I was running I mentioned that it was time for us, as government leaders, to lead by example. We are in a day and a time when we cannot play games anymore. We have many peoples' lives at stake, in our hands. Our direction over the next number of years can make or break us as two territories or as one.

We've heard of deficit. I know we cannot take that deficit to two territories but neither can we take it as one. We've got some hard decisions and hard tasks ahead but I believe with the people here, as they've mentioned earlier and over the past week, by working together we can make the possibility of having good things and not only bad.

I would like to say that I think that we, as group of people who represent the people of the NWT, can do a job and do it well by working together. As I said during my campaign, a strong family leads to strong community. Each and every one of us here is a member of a new family, and by working together we can make our community of the NWT a good place to live. Thank you.

---Applause