Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity today to report back to this House on last week’s Council of the Federation meeting as well as the meeting with aboriginal leaders I attended along with my fellow Premiers.

In what has become an important part of these meetings, Premiers met with the aboriginal leaders of the five national aboriginal organizations: Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations, AFN; Patrick Brazeau, leader of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, CAP; Duane Smith, vice-president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, ITK; Bruce Dumount, interim president of the Metis National Council, MNC; and Beverly Jacobs, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, NWAC, to discuss issues of common concern.

These meetings between Premiers and leaders of the national aboriginal organizations grew, in large part, from the Western Premiers’ Conference we hosted in Inuvik in 2004. I am pleased to say that leaders agreed in Moncton to have these meetings become a regular and continuing part of the Council of the Federation meetings.

This year’s meeting, and the three aboriginal summits that took place over the past year, are evidence of the continued commitment by Premiers to work with aboriginal leaders to advance a national aboriginal agenda; an agenda that identifies priority areas as well as solutions we can put in place to tackle such serious issues as family violence, substance abuse, comparatively low rates of education and employment and poor health and housing conditions.

Premiers have taken their role as national leaders seriously and have worked hard to establish and maintain a mutually respectful government-to-government relationship with aboriginal leaders. In that spirit, I am pleased to advise Members that the Northwest Territories has agreed to host next year’s National Aboriginal Women’s Summit.

Mr. Speaker, as noted in my sessional statement, I am pleased to report that Premiers released an important document in Moncton entitled A Shared Vision for Energy in Canada. This seven-point national energy plan is geared towards ensuring a secure, sustainable, reliable and competitively priced energy supply that meets Canada’s present and future needs. The plan, supplemented by energy maps, provides an inventory of the current and potential energy sources from coast to coast to coast, articulates a shared vision for energy in Canada and calls on the federal government to formally involve provinces and territories in international discussions and negotiations that deal with energy and natural resource matters.

This national energy plan strikes a balance between security of energy supply, environmental stewardship, social responsibility and economic prosperity. In the context of energy development, Premiers reiterated their unequivocal support for the Northwest Territories to successfully conclude a devolution and resource revenue sharing agreement so they can be the primary beneficiaries of the development of northern resources.

The agenda of the Council of the Federation also focussed on the issue of climate change. Premiers released a document entitled Climate Change: Leading Practices by Provincial and Territorial Governments of Canada. This collection of best practices highlights the good work provinces and territories are currently doing, or plan to do, to reduce greenhouse gases and to adapt to climate change.

Premiers realize more needs to be done and together we agreed to:

produce an additional 25,000 megawatts of renewable energy through 2020;

join The Climate Registry to ensure the consistent and verifiable measurement of greenhouse gas emissions;

work to develop strategies to implement a national biofuels and hydrogen distribution system;

develop a comprehensive inventory of research currently underway to identify areas of focus for future work and potential partnerships;

include climate change in school curricula;

develop and implement programs, standards or incentives aimed at improving energy efficiency in buildings and promoting the use of energy efficient appliances, vehicles and other energy-using products; and

committed to recapture methane gas from large landfills.

The Northwest Territories has programs in place or in development to assist in meeting the above goals, including the recently released Energy Efficiency Incentive Program, which provides incentives for residents to purchase energy-efficient models of products they use every day.

Mr. Speaker, for the North, where climate change impacts are felt first, adaptation is a critical matter. Along with our territorial colleagues, we are successful in gaining support to work together on a number of fronts, including work around adaptation.

We have worked hard to establish a strong northern voice with our provincial and territorial colleagues at the Council of the Federation and I believe, as evidenced by this year’s achievements, we have succeeded. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause