Frieda Martselos

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister has been promoting the new government renewal initiative as a means to reducing costs for our government.

Can the Minister provide any estimates, any dollar amounts or projection data, which states how much money this initiative will save the government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to the budget address for 20222023, business investment for 2020 was down minus 34.9 percent for the NWT.

Can the finance minister tell us what the government's plan is to turn those numbers around and increase business investment for the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Chair, you know, when we're putting the people, or the future generations at risk in this manner that, you know, we're building a territory for future generations, it's not going to be me that's going to be worried about if a mine's coming in or not, I don't think. But those are very serious it's a very serious way that we're looking at this. And let transboundary agreements into the territories is not okay. I don't care you can say, you know, this and that and the other and now you're in good standing with the federal government; not everybody is. I'm not used to a government that...

So the two agreements only include the harvesting? I thought I think is there only the harvesting that because once a transboundary agreement include land, there's a under section 35, there's a there's a barrier to any future development because you'll have to consult the person outside the boundary; am I correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The other thing I wanted to address is the homeownership program.

The homeownership program and also the we they're always there's always these thresholds that seem to be a barrier to ownership. So if you're at the very lower end of the scale, you can get ownership of because I know a couple, a young couple in Fort Smith who just started jobs and just started a new family, and they were told that they were over the threshold. And, you know, they're just starting out. They don't they bought a car and they wanted to buy the house they were in. And everything's with a...

I have no other comment at this moment, Mr. Chair.

Against.

In favour.

Mr. Speaker, I have heard from many of my constituents about the rising cost of living, the reduced purchasing power for people, and the historic levels of inflation, and it affects all consumer goods. Does the Minister of Finance have a plan to address this issue and help alleviate some of these extra costs for the people of the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.