Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re in our sixth week of session, our longest session on an annual basis here, and as I’ve indicated in these sessions here before, this is a long period of time with our extended family, and like with any family, sometimes we’re short with each other and get tired of each other towards the end. I appreciate everybody here and I appreciate everybody’s tolerance to my comments during the last six weeks.
During the last six weeks, we have passed a $1.6 billion budget, which extends out to 33 communities for 43,000 people. We look at 13 departments and as we go through each department, there are staff that come here, there are staff that sit in the halls and their offices and listen to the Ledge and look at all the questions that we have for them. We’ve kept a lot of them from their friends and family, and we’ve kept them working for the last six weeks as well. I’d like to thank them all for all their hard work.
During this session we’ve also seen devolution. My colleagues have talked about devolution today. I think it is a step forward. It was a big ceremony yesterday. It was a big day for the government and for the territory. I think we’ve moved forward. Is it the best deal? Can this deal be, like my colleague said, tweaked and made better? Definitely, and we can see a future, but at least the deal is being moved forward.
I know when we talk to our colleagues in the west, the Yukon, they see our Devolution Agreement and they’re kind of looking and saying, okay, maybe we need to upgrade ours. This is a process that’s taken 20 years, they tell me. Some of my more experienced colleagues tell me that it’s been here since they’ve been here. So it’s been on the table for a long time.
Yesterday we also had big discussions on the Tuk-Inuvik highway, which has taken a decade to get to here and get approval, and I think we’re moving forward. The Prime Minister announced yesterday their commitment for $200 million for this project, another big step in the Northwest Territories.
Like I said, I’d like to thank all the staff here in the Ledge, staff in the Government of the Northwest Territories that worked hard during this session, and I’d like to thank my colleagues for all of their hard work as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
