Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Menicoche.

Highways, special warrants, $273,000.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about the real and lasting benefits that need to be realized from resource development in the Northwest Territories.

Everyone knows that economic activity associated with a project of the magnitude of the Mackenzie gas pipeline is enormous. It would be the envy of any jurisdiction to experience the contracts, the jobs and the boom of such a development. Mr. Speaker, we, as northern leaders, representing the interests of our constituents, cannot be nearsighted. We cannot succumb to the temptation to support development that in the short...

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is in order, it's not debatable. All those in favour of the motion? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today was a good day in the Legislative Assembly in that I believe we, as elected Members, sit on committees and sit through briefings and at conferences all the time on the subject of the Mackenzie gas pipeline, and quite often we begin to assume that everyone in the public has access to the same kind of information and the same kind of debate that we do. So I think we accomplished something good here today in the fact that we have provided a strong message for our Premier and our Deputy Premier as they go off to Ottawa. As the Premier said, people will be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS the 15th Legislative Assembly vision and goals document states that the people of the Northwest Territories should be the primary beneficiaries of the development of our resources;

AND WHEREAS there is no agreement at this time providing for Northwest Territories governments to benefit from a share of resource royalties;

AND WHEREAS it has been estimated, based on a natural gas price of $4 U.S. per thousand cubic feet, the return over the next 30 years on a Mackenzie gas project, in the absence of a resource revenue sharing agreement, would be $900 million for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 25, 2004, I will move the following motion:

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that this Legislative Assembly endorses the Mackenzie gas project and supports efforts to ensure that northerners realize demonstrable net benefits from such projects;

And further that the Legislative Assembly urges the federal government to negotiate a fair resource revenue sharing agreement that provides northern governments with an equitable share of royalties from our hydrocarbons and minerals as essential...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last government, the federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, the Honourable Robert Nault, committed to a process which encompassed the GNWT, the aboriginal governments and the federal government. The federal government subsequently hired David Peterson as a negotiator on behalf of the federal government, to which we were disappointed later to hear that he couldn’t talk money but he could talk devolution. That was a process that was in place. I think we made progress. Now we have a different Minister. What is the process now in place to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to direct my questions today to the Premier of the Northwest Territories, the Honourable Joe Handley. Mr. Speaker, in following up on one of the statements of my colleagues on the subject of leadership, I have already, during this session, briefly touched on this subject with the Premier and asked him some questions. Mr. Speaker, I think this is a very timely discussion with respect to the pipeline. The Premier has heard many Members today refer to some of the frustrations that we feel with the response we have received over the years when dealing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. As I said, the older brother came in from the land. He was so hungry that he quickly gave up his inheritance for a bowl of soup, which satisfied his temporary needs. He later tried to recover it as he wept with bitter tears, but it was too late. Just as the resources of Alberta belonged to and benefited Albertans, a fair share of the non-renewable resources of the NWT belong to northerners and the governments that represent them.

---Applause

The land and the resources on and under that land are the inheritance of northerners, and that, Mr...