Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to shift gears a little bit and recognizing that the Premier covered some of this in response to Ms. Bisaro, when will the Premier start a communication strategy to begin dialogue with Aboriginal governments and consider their input in the AIP?

I’d like to thank the Premier for that answer. I think a deviation of the AIP is needed, but it’s apparent the government is not prepared to do that. According to the history, Aboriginal people are the true landowners of the Northwest Territories. Does the Premier acknowledge that the Aboriginal people are the true landowners and also landowners of the resources in that land?

Mr. Speaker, this AIP has damaged relationships between Aboriginal, territorial and federal governments; the federal resource revenue is much larger; the share of federal resource revenue is much larger than both the Aboriginal and territorial governments’ share.

Our cost of regulating development could easily be much more than the federal government will transfer to pay for it. So in the future we as a GNWT and the Aboriginal governments could be facing costs that we cannot cover. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, talking to health providers in the small communities, their response on what is driving the costs in small communities seems to be addictions. Talking to local people in the small communities, their solution seems to be on-the-land programs for people with addictions. Has this government talked about how to decrease the cost of health in small communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Finance. In discussing the budget and the long-term benefits of such a budget, I was wondering what the government plans to do to increase the employment rates in the small communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Infrastructure like youth centres and day cares and access roads are all things that will, in the long term, decrease the cost to government. My question is again for the Finance Minister. What is the government doing to shift much needed infrastructure resources in this government from larger centres, where it is not essential, to the smaller communities where infrastructure projects are essential? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there are big areas of concern in small communities when the communities find work and the tenants in public housing when they find work and then they are unable to work due to the costs and so on. Has this government discussed a way of dealing with that issue? It seems to hamstring the people from actually going out and finding employment and so on, because as soon as they find work, their rent goes to a point where they can no longer afford to remain working but they should be working. I was wondering if the government has talked about a strategy to address that seriously too...

Mr. Speaker, the employment program, trade spending, child funding, reduced power rates are all good, but we need environmental cleanups, infrastructure and housing projects in all of the small communities to make the situation better. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I will be talking to the budget. I noticed three years of drawing comparisons between large communities and small communities that there would be some shift of government resources on larger communities to small communities. Mr. Speaker, in reality, I am convinced that this government cannot or will not make that shift, at least not in a significant way. Mr. Speaker, three years ago I noticed a huge deficit in government infrastructure in and around small communities. This government responded, but compared to the big money being spent in large centres, there is still a...