Thank you, Madam Chair. The people in the small communities and the communities around here can surgically skin a moose pretty well. We know how, we have the creative initiatives and, as Mr. Roland said, they want to surgically look at the budget here. Giving the people in our regions some flexibility in terms of looking at the fiscal realities in our communities, we could do some good work in terms of how to save money, how to share cost money, and how to put money to good use. I think there could be some incentives for communities to go through that exercise. I think we are big enough now and we have enough training.

I think the point that Mr. Allen was leading to, and I would like to talk to, is the aboriginal governments, the communities, and this government looking at how we could deal with the formula financing with Ottawa. What they are doing is just not right in taking our dollars out of here and giving us back only a few pennies. It has to stop. People are saying that, why don't you guys stop it, you are government, do something about this otherwise we are going to continue holding our hand out. If we do this, then the communities are going to continue doing this too, holding their hand out for one of the programs we want to take over and they need the dollars to back it.

Madam Chair, just a comment in terms of supporting the Minister in all of his initiatives to go get the dollars out of

Ottawa. Senator Nick Sibbeston wanted to do a name change and I said you know we should be calling ourselves Robin Hood because Ottawa is robbing from our land. That is all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I hear from my honourable Members that you go through the Chair, so I'll say it again, Mr. Roland...

---Laughter

Excuse me. Sorry about that. I have a question for the Minister, Madam Chair. Like my honourable colleague from Nahendeh, I am also new at this process here and

sometimes it seems like it's my first day in school here in front of the principal. However, I am going to continue on with the process and just take the words from the Minister of Indian Affairs that I'm in a learning experience, a learning process. So I'm going to take his advice and his words from this morning.

I want to ask a question regarding the budget address that you made yesterday with regard to preparing our communities to face the realities of the fiscal obligations of the Northwest Territories that we have, the responsibility. We are preparing ourselves in the House here when we go through the exercise of deciding a strategy for the department to prepare our people in the small communities; the down-to-earth, day-to-day people who pay taxes, go to work, who come to talk to us as the Members of the Legislative Assembly, in terms of educating and helping them to also deal with this reality. They will get mad at us. Why are you increasing our payroll? Why are you increasing the corporate taxes? How come the Northwest Territories is so rich in its resources, yet Ottawa is taking a whole bunch of it?

So in plain English, in plain language, how do we educate and help our people get on our side and say that there's a bigger picture here and how do we work all together? That's going to be our responsibility, I guess, in terms of helping our people in the smaller communities understand the process that we have been undertaking yesterday and today. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister. In light of the Sahtu Dene/Metis land claim agreement, we had a good meeting this morning with regard to the Aboriginal Summit and the Minister. I've been hearing that we need to work together in partnership, and I want to support the government in supporting our land claim groups; that we can jointly pursue the federal government in terms of its obligations. My question to the Minister is really that this government needs to make it a priority to fulfill its obligations under the land claim agreements and how do we demonstrate this together with land claim groups and with the federal government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister commit to assist in the regional land claims, with both financial and logistical support, to develop action plans to prioritize the implementation of the chapters of the agreement that are urgently needed to ensure that we can manage and take care of our lands in the face of a major development such as the Mackenzie gas pipeline to be delivered to the federal government?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot of my people in the riding of Sahtu are directly impacted by the Sahtu Dene/Metis land claim agreement. They had high hopes and they still have high hopes of some security in this agreement to fulfill our rightful place in the Sahtu region and in shaping this great territory of the Northwest Territories in Canada. I want to ask the Minister would he consider putting in place a review process with the land claim groups to address and to respond to outstanding implementation obligations of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. It has been 10 years since the Sahtu Dene/Metis land claim agreements were signed, and still the Government of the Northwest Territories has not yet lived up to its obligations, such as the amendment to the Wildlife Act and the Forest Management Act. I would like to ask the Minister how does he plan to ensure that the Sahtu beneficiaries receive these obligations? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few weeks ago we all heard the Auditor General tell us that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs needs to do a better job implementing the land claim agreements to reflect the spirit of those documents. Mr. Speaker, we like to criticize Ottawa now and then, but in this case maybe we should invite the Auditor General to the Northwest Territories, too. The GNWT also needs to improve how they admit the land claim obligations.

The Inuvialuit Final Agreement was signed in 1984. The Gwich'in agreement was signed in 1992. The Sahtu agreement was signed in 1993. We have all these nice chapters on wildlife, forestry, lands and economic measures. They aren't doing us much good, Mr. Speaker. We are still waiting for the amendments to the Wildlife Act and the Forest Management Act and other legislation.

The Mackenzie Valley is about to see major developments. Things are moving fast, so we need our land claim agreements to be in full effect so we can manage our lands, resources and economics. That's what the agreements were supposed to give us. The GNWT has to change its laws to make this happen.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very happy for my Tlicho friends who were finally able to sign their agreement last year. I sure hope they have better luck than the Sahtu and Gwich'in people and that they're not still waiting around 10 years from now for this government to live up to its obligations.

At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I'll be asking the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs how he plans to make sure this government is up to the letter and spirit of the land claims obligations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further, would the Premier commit to assist, in terms of both financial and logistical support of local and regional aboriginal governments, to develop positions to negotiate things such as access and benefits agreements, protected areas, social impact responses and so forth? We really need help in our region with regard to this issue, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Premier agree to put in place a joint committee with the lead Minister on the governance side and participation from Regular Members to address and respond to issues related to the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline?