Good Morning distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a pleasure to be here today to speak to you about the Northwest Territories, land of the midnight sun, and spectacular Aurora borealis. A land with massive oil and gas reserves in a wilderness without apparent end.  A land that holds great significance for the rest of Canada; not only by responsibly developing the enormous resources but by embodying that very place your conference is about, the Arctic Border.

Many of you recently saw a Premier’s popularity poll – it was an interesting read. I see that Premier Wall is enjoying first place in this popularity contest. What you might not have noticed, was that none of the northern territories were included in this poll. Now we’ve gotten used to this in the Northwest Territories. Not being included in National polls done in the media. But I’m here today to tell you we are a vital part of this country.

On September 9^th last year, the governments of Canada and Nunavut announced that they had found the final resting place of what was later confirmed to be H.M.S. Erebus, one of the ships of the ill-fated Franklin expedition.  Lost almost 179 years ago, the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men has been a mystery which has captured imaginations around the world ever since.

The story of the Franklin Expedition and the many narratives that have collected around it over the years, illustrates something that is often forgotten by many outside the North and that is that international interest in the Arctic is not new. Sir John Franklin was just one of many European explorers that began visiting the Arctic almost 450 years ago when Martin Frobisher made his first voyage in search of the Northwest Passage in 1576.

The intervening years have seen an almost unbroken stream of explorers come North, many of them mariners like yourselves. Their perceptions of the North played a powerful role in shaping the official history and outside understanding of our region and its place in the world.

While the Arctic seems remote and inaccessible, we have connections to the rest of the world that go back hundreds of years.  From our earliest contact, the Aboriginal peoples of the North have known and greeted visitors from many parts of the world.

 Far from being isolated and remote, our region has been an important part of the world economy for centuries now.  Early on, visitors to our region recognized the economic potential in our abundant natural resources.  Initial contact quickly developed into active trading relationships that saw Europeans regularly travelling into the North, living and trading among our people.  Northern resources, especially furs, helped to fuel economic growth in Europe, creating wealth and prosperity for its peoples.

Canada’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council over the past two years was an opportunity for us to experience firsthand how that old interest so familiar to us is growing and changing today. We can particularly see it in a growing list of observer nations that are beginning to see opportunities emerging in the Arctic that they wish to influence. Even transnational organizations like the European Union are getting in on the act.

Added to the increasing interest from nation-states and government bodies is growing private interest from non-governmental organizations, environmental lobby groups, business and industry pursuing their own diverse and varied agendas.

As interests multiply and their implications for the Arctic grow more complicated, the need to coordinate and reconcile them becomes ever more important.  At the same time, we need to ensure that they do not clash with legitimate interests of the people who make the Arctic their home.

Events like this one are a useful and valuable forum for furthering understanding of the North and its peoples. That understanding, in turn, is a starting point for the kind of respectful dialogue that needs to take place between Northerners and the rest of the world as we all consider the future of the Arctic and its role in world affairs.

The NWT is a dynamic and evolving territory where the Government of the Northwest Territories and Aboriginal governments are working together to create prosperity for all the people we serve. We have the potential to be an engine of economic growth for this country. We have the potential to be a net contributor to this nation, not to be drawing upon it for support.

Our contribution to this country cannot be measured by GDP alone – the diversity of our land, people, and cultures are unique in confederation. We have 11 official languages, seven regional Aboriginal governments, a land mass of 1,345,000 square kilometers, harsh winters, brilliant summers and some of the best sport fishing in Canada, if not the world.

In the north, we have a vision of strong individuals and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories.

This vision is important because they will help to create a territory where our people can prosper and thrive. A territory where our people can enjoy a high quality of life, good health and a healthy environment. A territory where everyone has the support they need to be full participants in their community and to achieve their aspirations for themselves and their families.

We have made good progress towards realizing our vision for this kind of territory. After decades of negotiation and years of preparation, we achieved devolution of authority for land and water in April 2014. Five Aboriginal governments signed onto devolution and are participating in our land and water management decisions.

We broke ground in January of 2014 with Prime Minister Harper for the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway and we have just returned from highly productive meetings with European space agencies eager to become customers in the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Line and the satellite receiving station it supports in Inuvik.

Ideally positioned to receive data from polar orbiting satellites, the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility is already home to three satellite dishes, with site preparation for a fourth underway and a fifth dish in the planning stages. Remote sensing is an ideal way to monitor the large landmass and long coastline of Canada and data received in Inuvik helps provide information on natural resources, environmental monitoring, shipping and navigation and safety, sovereignty and  security. The fibre line that our government is building will allow for data to be received in real time, increasing the value and usefulness of the Inuvik facility immeasurably.

There is much more to the NWT but those three projects I just mentioned are key to our understanding of the North and what it means to live in one of the most remote places in the world that is becoming more and more accessible with each passing year.

With accessibility comes opportunity, and we all know that with opportunity there is risk. I don’t need to tell this audience that risk identification and mitigation are critical to the success of any mission. It’s the same for my government, we are opening up our territory to bring prosperity to our residents and to the country. With that openness comes even more challenges for our people and our environment.

One of the most significant changes we have seen in our natural environment is the opening of the Northwest Passage. Climate change is an undeniable reality for the Northwest Territories. We live it every day. The Arctic Border is now open like it has never been before and with that come some very real challenges for our remote northern communities and our nations’ security.

With melting sea ice and permafrost degradation, our coastal communities are at risk. Traditionally hunted species are disappearing, infrastructure is breaking down and we have seen some unscheduled visitors from other countries suddenly appear.

But Northerners have always adapted to their circumstances and their environment, surviving one of the harshest climates in the world for thousands of years by maintaining strong communities and cultural practices. And we will adapt to these changing circumstances as well.

We are going to focus on sustainable economic development and on the infrastructure that we need to support it. We need investments in northern transportation, energy and communications infrastructure and sustainable resource development to unlock the economic potential in the NWT.

The Government of the Northwest Territories created a Water Stewardship strategy to ensure the waters of the NWT will remain clean productive and abundant for all time -  a legacy for future generations. Traditional and local knowledge workshops and community-based monitoring have added valuable information to this process.  People in the NWT are experts on the place where they live and work.

As I said earlier about the natural resource potential of the Northwest Territories; We have an abundance of energy resources – oil, gas and hydro. We have diamonds. We have gold, lead, zinc, rare earth elements and uranium. These are resources that the global economy wants and needs to support and sustain growth.

We are the third largest diamond producer in the world.  In fact, diamonds account for almost a quarter of our territory’s GDP.  We already export $2 billion annually in diamonds alone. We have three of Canada’s diamond mines and a fourth one about to be constructed. Our product is recognized as being of the highest quality, and conflict-free.

Renewable energy potential is substantial, including up to 11,000 megawatts of hydroelectric potential.

Our territory is also sitting atop 81.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with significant plays in all regions. This doesn't even fully factor in recent announcements about the 200 billion barrels in the Canol and Bluefish Shales.

We have seven billion known barrels of oil.  Production is underway in Norman Wells and in the Cameron Hills.  The prospects for more production are real, and require only the capital investment and infrastructure to realize them.

The potential undiscovered nearshore reserves in the Mackenzie River Delta include an additional 10.5 billion barrels of oil, 87 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 4 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.  We also have gas hydrate in the Beaufort Sea.

The irony for us is that while we have what the world wants, we don’t have many ways to get to it, or to get our resources to the world. You can’t sell what you can’t ship, and our territory faces an estimated $3 billion infrastructure deficit. Our resources are going untapped because we lack the roads, airports, sea ports and other infrastructure to bring them to market.

For years we have seen our resource potential lie dormant and undeveloped, our businesses idle and economy stifled while we wait for the promised boom that is always coming but has yet to arrive. We have all seen firsthand the kinds of challenges that can slow a project down and delay economic development.

Northerners are tired of waiting.

We have no interest in seeing our resources stranded another 40 years. We want to start enjoying the benefits of a strong, robust economy based on responsible and sustainable development of our resource wealth. It is time for the Northwest Territories to take its place in Confederation as a “have” jurisdiction contributing to national growth and prosperity.

Addressing the northern infrastructure deficit is a first, crucial step. As you’ve heard, we are in the process of building the Inuvik-Tuk highway with the assistance of the Government of Canada. This highway is just the first step in completing the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The next step we are proposing would open up the resource rich central Mackenzie, boosting the Canadian economy and providing years of employment for skilled workers.

We are also studying the potential of a seasonal overland road into the Slave Geologic Province and Nunavut. This project would extend the life of the NWT’s diamond mines and make new exploration and development projects in this mineral rich region more feasible. We have already been talking to the Government of Nunavut about how connecting to a road there could help to unlock stranded resources in that territory, multiplying the effect of our own infrastructure investments, and multiplying the benefit to Canada.

Our resources have been stranded for too long. Transportation routes in all forms and all directions are key to getting our resources to market. We cannot wait to put our critical northern infrastructure in place. We need more roads to resources and I am pleased that the federal government has recently announced $96 million dollars for investment in several highways and major roads in the Northwest Territories under the new Building Canada Plan.

While we are extremely pleased with this investment, we will continue to seek federal partnership in nation-building projects such as a deep sea port that would allow the Northwest Territories to move its resources, while also providing a necessary base for Canadian security operations.

We are not the only ones who see a need for increased federal attention to Northern waters. Last year, the Centre for International Governance Innovation released a policy brief called “The Northwest Territories and Arctic Maritime Development in the Beaufort Area”. The report called the Northwest Territories, “arguably the most promising economic region in the Canadian Arctic in terms of public and private potential, scale of resources, variety of transport routes, well-functioning territorial government and close cooperation with neighbours.” Our territory was noted for its impressive achievements in responsible resource and community development, and devolution was cited as an important step that will enhance our economic self-reliance.

For all these positive predictions though, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, stated that the lack of adequate transport corridors and infrastructure arising from complex permitting regulations and governance is preventing the territory from fully realizing its economic potential. The report’s authors called for greater federal fiscal leadership and planning and recommend the Government of the Northwest Territories use devolution as a new opportunity for enhanced land/marine partnerships with the federal government, similar to federal-provincial nation building transportation projects in the South.

I couldn’t agree more, and have been saying throughout my term that the Northwest Territories has the resources to create prosperity and drive economic growth at home and across Canada. Federal partnership and investment in the Northwest Territories continues to be necessary and will help this territory create jobs and economic opportunities that will benefit all Canadians.

Ladies and gentlemen, responsible, sustainable development of the North is in the national interest. The Northwest Territories has the resources, the ambition and the ingenuity that can help grow the Canadian economy and create new jobs and opportunities nationwide.

I thank you for your time and attention this. I would like to add my thanks on behalf of the residents of the Northwest Territories to you and all of those who continue to serve and protect our country.