Jane Groenewegen

I call Committee of the Whole to order. We have quite a number of items before Committee of the Whole today. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the Premier’s confirmation of that fact, because I do think that there are people out there who think to the contrary. The other thing is, in the distribution of the work that we do here in the Assembly, some are Regular Members and some are in Cabinet. Again, another perception that’s out there in the public is that somehow being at the Cabinet table is beneficial to your riding more so than the rest of us who sit around here. I have said many times, I see us sitting around here as equals. We assign certain responsibilities to Members of the Cabinet...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to return to Item 6 on the Order Paper, oral questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for those answers. What is the next thing on the Premier’s agenda with respect to this file? What’s up and coming and what do we have in our ability, within our ability…I want to say arsenal of tactics of things we can do. We’ve heard everything from taking down the flag of Canada to putting up a bronze statue. No, that one we don’t take seriously.

---Laughter

But we’re desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures. What is the next thing on the Premier’s agenda and what do we reasonably have in our control to advance this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier, Joe Handley. You have heard the Members’ statements on this side of the House. I should say, Mr. Speaker, the Premier has heard the Members’ statements on this side of the House today and I think that it would be hard to argue that time is of the essence when it comes to getting a fair deal on resource revenue sharing with Ottawa. I would like to ask the Premier what he can tell us that would indicate to us that he agrees that this has to be the highest priority of this government at this time? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’re having a theme day, as you can tell, on resource revenue sharing. We’ve been talking about this for a long time. On the plus side, we’ve got a lot of resources from which to derive revenue in the Northwest Territories. Not every jurisdiction has that, so let’s lay that out first and count our blessings. We’ve got the resources. We have enough resources to make revenue sharing a win-win for everyone: for Canada, for our territory, for aboriginal governments and their aspirations.

My worry, Mr. Speaker, is that we are in an extremely vulnerable situation...

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Is the committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. speaker, this has been a good discussion here today and I am happy to see it’s coming onto the floor of this House, because in committee we talk about resource revenue sharing a fair amount. I won’t give you any of the details, of course, because that’s against the rules, but some of the quality of debate that sometimes goes on behind closed doors, I am glad to see it’s coming onto the floor of the House here because northerners need to hear where we stand on this.

The resource revenue sharing aspect of our aspirations here quite often overlaps and is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to suggest to the Premier that if this…I do know Mr. Gerein, with all due respect, and we don't want to take away from the good work that he's done here at all. I had honestly forgotten about him though; I haven't seen him for a long time. Mr. Speaker, we have appointed…On the energy file for example, we appointed a very high profile Conservative. I think Peter Lougheed did some work for our government on some previous file. It seems that when the federal government appoints somebody like Harvie Andre or David Petersen or somebody like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a couple more questions for the Premier with regard to our theme day topic today -- resource revenue sharing -- and our efforts on behalf of that file. I would like to ask the Premier what other resources that he has at his disposal to affect some progress on this file. Last week when we talked about the distribution of workload in Cabinet, the Premier shared that he carries a very heavy workload and that his desk is seldom clear of items that need to be done. That being the case, combined with what he said today about this is his highest...