Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier today. I want to follow up in a larger context on some of the line of questioning of my colleague Ms. Bisaro.
I appreciate the Premier’s idea of needing to think outside the box as far as the NTPC. In the larger context of things — and context is everything, you know — we are facing a global water crisis, climate change; the rate of species loss is accelerating; the devastation of marine foods is well documented; and so on. Now we’re facing an economic crisis, increasing fuel costs, et cetera.
Does the Premier agree that today is a good day to reconsider how we do business and to make fundamental changes to improve and restructure our systems so they perform much better?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Mr. Speaker, as the Member has put it so well, it is hard to disagree with a statement or a question that’s…. We want the system to work better. We agree as we look at the global environment and the economy that there is a need for change. We have to look at that ourselves, as the Government of Northwest Territories, in our approach. The issue will be: how can we start that shift happening? I think we’re starting to do some of that.
For example, in the upcoming business plans we are going to be looking from the energy side trying to expand the way we deliver energy in the Northwest Territories. I would say it would be hard to disagree with what the Member is saying. It’s a matter of how we turn that corner: the implementation side of changing the way we do business.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Premier’s rigour in looking for ways to disagree and not finding any there. Given our increasing reliance upon imported everything — i.e., our increasing subscription to the global economy and the increasing volatility of the global systems and so on — does the Premier agree that this major shift in the Northwest Territories to improve our ability to be self-sufficient and insulated from those things should really take the triple bottom line approach and strengthen our self-sufficiency using local resources to develop our local economies?
Mr. Speaker, I can see now where the Member is going. The fact is that we do have to look at our own economies at the community level. We have heard quite a number of times in this Assembly about the need for sustainable development in our smaller communities and looking at what type of business we can get into.
One of the things we do have to look at…. I think we can go right back to the history of the Northwest Territories. There used to be gardens in just about every one of our communities that provided food and the basic necessities for a lot of the families and some of our own…. Well, not our own at the time; the federal system that was in place. So things of that nature. The need and the necessity is something we are going to have to look at again across the Northwest Territories, especially with the high cost of living here in the North.
Thanks to the Premier for those comments. I appreciate his agreement that there are some real needs there, and this is one way to do that. I am interested in some specifics.
We’re losing our young entrepreneurs; we’re going more to the big box stores and so on. Somehow they seem to become portrayed as northern businesses. It’s really the fundamental, systemic things that need to change. We need to have honour systems and so on for our elders. We need to really start to realize that traditional knowledge has real and practical value as well as to use modern technology. I am interested in what specific things we can do. This government is trying to change the ways that we can change in really fundamental and meaningful ways rather than debating the minor things that don’t really get us anything.
Mr. Speaker, I think the fact that some of our debate in this House is about having the proper consultation, and the approach we use, and the change we need to see here in the Northwest Territories…. An example of some of that change is that earlier today Minister Bob McLeod announced the SEED policy, the program coming into effect helping small businesses in our communities.
It’s that type of approach that we see happening, yet we realize we still have some traditional economies out there that we need to continue to support, like the trapping program and trying to get back into, for example, the Take a Kid Trapping program that Minister McLeod’s department is part of. So, Mr. Speaker, we are taking some steps, and we do have some concrete examples.
More importantly, as we go towards the next business planning cycle, if Members have specific initiatives they would like to see incorporated into our business plans, it would be that approach where we can start to implement that. Again, that takes the will of the House. Some of them can be fairly different approaches, but I think it would be wise of us to start looking at those types of approaches.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. A final short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you for those comments, Premier. I wonder if it might be a good time in our talk about devolution and so on…. You know, I can’t say that I have really been a great admirer of the federal success at managing our resources, because of all the context I provided earlier in this question. I am hoping that this government will do a much better job when we do get responsibility, and perhaps it’s timely to start a public process.
Would this Premier consider implementing a public process to start the territorial debate on the basis we are going to manage our resources, to do a much better job than our federal and global governments have done?
Mr. Speaker, I believe that on a number of fronts we are engaging the public in how we look at business in the North.
For example, even though we may not have the legal responsibility of water management or some of the land areas we are discussing with the federal government, we as the 16th Assembly have engaged with aboriginal leadership on coming up with a water strategy, and we want to work with that. The Minister of ITI has the economic discussion table that will remain open. We have the Minister of Finance having his tables open on the revenue side of the equation in the Northwest Territories. So there are a number of fronts we are having continuous public input on in those areas as we develop our own strategies made in the North.
I think the Member’s point should be taken as well: the fact that we in the Northwest Territories need to bring those authorities here so we can make a decision and have our own designs put in place for how we develop in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
