Debates of August 15, 2007 (day 10)

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In our May session a few months ago, I stood here to applaud the signing of an agreement-in-principle on devolution and resource revenue sharing. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to salute the vision and the leadership shown by the Gwich’in, the Metis, the Sahtu and the Inuvialuit leaders in joining with our government to present a unified approach to Canada on sharing the wealth of this great land. We should remind ourselves, again, Mr. Speaker, that that wealth amounts to some $750,000 every single day in the value of taxes and resource royalties that are going not into our pockets but into Ottawa’s.

Mr. Speaker, we had, a few months ago, high hopes that Canada would actually see the signing of this agreement as real progress and we could actually have an AIP signed off, but that was not to be, as the Dehcho, Akaitcho and Tlicho governments have not signed on.

Mr. Speaker, in doing so, the North collectively gave Ottawa again the same excuse Ottawa has been able to use over and over to say no to us; that is that until we are unified, our quest for a real share of our resources is futile. Mr. Speaker, when are we going to figure this out? How can we come to accept that as different, special, unique, deserving and entitled as we all are in our separate governments and regions, we had this one dream, this one goal that we shared? When will we resolve that the only real power that we have is that of a clear, single voice demanding that we have a real share of the wealth coming out of the very ground we claim to be ours?

Perhaps the answer lies, Mr. Speaker, not in our meagre and limited political ability as proven by 20 years of futility. Perhaps it lies instead with the youth and artisans, the real visionaries of this territory, Mr. Speaker. I want to quote from a song that a young Dene woman named Leela Gilday wrote. She’s a Juno Award winner and she just might have the answer. In three eloquent lines from a song called One Drum, she tells us: “We are speaking the truth to the people. We are marching to the beat of one drum.”

We have tried for decades to do it. As politicians, we’ve failed. Perhaps Leela Gilday has the answer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause