Bob McLeod

Mr. Speaker, last June in this Legislature, I expressed our government’s formal commitment to a set of principles and key actions to strengthen and renew our relationships with our Aboriginal government partners. “Respect, Recognition, Responsibility” is a foundational piece upon which all of our actions and commitments are built.

A cornerstone of our approach is our commitment to work with Aboriginal governments who are interested in formalizing their government-to-government relationship with the GNWT.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, May 23, we met with the chiefs of the Akaitcho Territory Dene...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to recognize two constituents of Yellowknife South visiting here from William MacDonald School, Braden Helyar, student, and Mr. Paul McDonald, a teacher at William MacDonald. Thank you.

As usual, we’re doing our due diligence. We’re going out to look at best practices. We’re going out to all of the provinces to see how successful or how well they’re doing with regulating the prices. I think that we always feel that, let the private sector do it; the private sector can do a better job. We don’t want to get in a situation where we regulate industry and then government is going to have to operate all of the service stations. We’re checking to see how well other provinces are doing or if there is something there that we can emulate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to recognize my wife, Melody. We have been together for a long time. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure and an honour to welcome back my colleagues of the Legislative Assembly as we convene for our spring sitting. I trust all our Members have enjoyed some memorable time with their families and constituents.

Mr. Speaker, this may not be a long sitting, but it will be a busy one, an ambitious one, and an important one. This session will see several of the strategies the Government of the Northwest Territories has been working on come forward, and it is also our plan to bring a motion on the proposed Devolution Agreement to Members for their review and discussion.

This...

We haven’t gone out with a survey or… I would imagine that everybody wants lower prices, so I think it’s a given that the people of the Northwest Territories want lower prices. The MLA from Tsiigehtchic indicated they’re paying $1.99 for gas, so obviously, that’s something. We want to find a way to reduce the cost of living in all of the communities in the Territories.

When you look at some of the prices that are regulated – I think PEI is one of the places – and the last time I checked, it was something in the neighbourhood of $1.31 a litre for gasoline, and that’s a regulated price in Prince...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a very sensitive area. We are working to find solutions, and we’re trying to find out why a carbon tax is embedded in the high prices for gasoline.

I and all Members of this Assembly are going to be making history for our people. As we debate devolution, we will be debating and assenting to the birthright of our people. We will be voting to ensure decisions on northern development reflect the aspirations of the NWT residents, communities and Aboriginal governments.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all Members for their hard work in support of the vision of this Assembly and the plans of the government. I look forward to working with them in the important weeks and months ahead. This will be a time to remember, and devolution will be a gift to...

I thought the Member didn’t care how I felt. Definitely, we will find a way to get public input.

We definitely want to make sure that is the case. That’s why the legal and technical review of the final agreement that we’re doing right now is so important, because we want to make sure that doesn’t happen.