Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to try to do this one from the heart because for me that's when I feel like I always am able to speak my best. So I've got a couple notes here and I'll forgive everybody will have to forgive me if I forget to mention someone that has been there for me.
I first just wanted to start with my personal staff that had helped me through the last while starting with my MSA, when I was a Minister, Krista Elander. Also my campaign manager. And as well Colleen O'Connor who was my constituency assistant for the majority of my time here in the House. I don't think she's here, but Colleen saw me through what was probably one of the toughest moments of my life, and as well including the death of my mother, and I wanted to thank her for that time. My current constituency assistant, Maggie Mercredi, I can't thank Maggie enough. Maggie is my sounding board. Maggie is my weathervane. Maggie is my teacher, my instructor. The conversations that we have and the things that I have learned, particularly around the privilege that I hold as a white woman in this country and in this nation, I can't thank her enough for that perspective that she gives me. And I'm honoured to call her my friend as well as my assistant. I would be remiss if we talked about all the staff in this building, and I didn't bring up the security guards, the security guards who have made me feel fairly safe given that I've had a little bit of a bumpy ride here and who knows, when people get passionate about things how it's going to go. And I've always known that security had my back, plus they were the recipient of a lot of my corny jokes as I came in to the Assembly every day. So I appreciate their time. And unfortunately Bob is now gone, he was also my constituent. So I always enjoyed chatting with him.
Speaking of my constituents, they have been through a lot with me. I know that there are many that are probably not too happy with me at the moment but there are a lot that have reached out in support. I would be remiss if I didn't bring up probably everybody's favorite Canada Day parade participant Merlin Williams and his wife Joyce who have provided just a huge amount of support to me over the last four years and just keeping me going as well as providing me some of that dry British humour that I miss from all my great uncles who were Scottish and loved a good joke. Although they are Welsh so I will not, you know, conflate the two.
I think a huge thing for me has been the committee work, which I often tell people the sessional piece is not really that important to me. I find this to actually be the part of the job that I don't I mean, I like to get up, it's fun to put on the earrings and the clothes and etcetera, but to me the real work is the work that we've been doing in our committees and our advocacy work. And I'm really, really proud of the two committees that I sat on, besides the AOC, which was the Standing Committee on Social Development as well as the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment. Both were very lively. Both were very informative. I'm a lifelong learner. My parents the were educators, I've mentioned that many times in this House, and the things that I have learned just from being a part of these committees has blown my mind. And I know that no matter what happens in my path forward, the information and the knowledge that I've gained from that work is going to serve me no matter where I go and will allow me to continue on the path of advocacy no matter whether I sit in this House doing so or somewhere else in this territory.
This role really is about relationships. Relationships across the House, across the floor, but relationships also with our colleagues, relationships with our staff and relationships with our constituents and our neighbours. I've been very grateful to have made great friends in this Assembly. I really want to give a special shout out, though, to my colleague the MLA for Monfwi. We've had a great time sitting here much maybe to your chagrin a few times, Mr. Speaker, when we get chatting. I just want to say that the power of this woman is that she is probably the only person in my adult life that has ever gotten me to pray on a bible. And if you know me, Mr. Speaker, that is a huge thing. And I think it speaks volumes to the faith and commitment that Jane has and the heart that she has brought to this Assembly and the support that she has shown me. I am really grateful for your support and your friendship, Jane, as well to you, Jackie, we've been a big supporter in keeping me coming back into this House time and again.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't speak about all my colleagues. I've watched everybody transform and change over four years. I don't even recognize myself from when I came into this House. I remember feeling so scared and intimidated. Haylee Carlson being that bright smile to make us all feel a little bit less scared. But it's funny to me now when people talk about the intimidation or feeling like the awe of coming in here that I no longer have that same feeling of fear that I had when I walked in. And to me, as a person who has struggled a long time in my life with confidence and esteem, the ability to now walk into this Assembly and feel like I belong here is a huge growth for me and speaks volumes to the confidence I now have in myself that has been instilled in me through this work.
I would have to say to you, Mr. Speaker, specifically thank you. Thank you for tolerating my, you know, challenging of process and rules at times. I know the clerk's office has also been kept on their toes by me. I'm a firm believer that change doesn't happen unless we sort of push forward and batter, and I know sometimes my battering ram is a little bit maybe oversized for what it needs to be; however, it's always been done with the intent to make the change that's good and right for this territory. And I thank you for always having a sense of humour while you do this and while you deal with me. So much appreciated.
I had already mentioned before the translators. I am a fast speaker. I am the youngest of four kids, I had to speak a lot to get words in when I was a child, and I think that's translated on now as well as having been a consultant where time was money. We didn't have a lot of time to spend choosing our words often, and so we just plowed ahead. So thank you to the translators and the interpreters for bearing with me, but also thank you for all of your kind words of support. Many times I walked out of this Chamber after a very, very difficult day not knowing many of you from before or not knowing hardly any of you from before, but you have said words to me that encouraged me, that have kept me going. I don't have family in the territory. I don't have any family anymore that's of a certain vintage. And so I do really appreciate that the elders, I feel that you have welcomed me and embraced me and encouraged me and I thank you so much for that.
Sorry, I just got to find my notes here.
There are a few things that have happened here in this last one that I want to take forward to the 20th Assembly and areas I think that are important for them to focus on. My speech today or my statement today was on the infrastructure deficit. I can't stress enough what that is doing to us as a territory. When you are constantly playing catchup on things, you're spending more money to do that catchup than you would if you had the right money to begin with. That's a huge thing and lesson in consulting. In engineering, you need to put the money upfront to do so right. And so I think that's something we really need to take forward in the next Assembly is get that Mackenzie Valley Highway built.
The next piece I think that is probably the most important well, I say that, and then every time I say that I think of about 40 other things that I feel are equivalently important. And I think I'm a bit cursed sometimes with that bigger picture, you know, and interconnectivity ability to see that, so. Addictions and mental health. I've been a huge proponent of mental health supports. And, Mr. Speaker, I've been very frank; I spoke about it earlier today to the CBC. I struggle from depression and anxiety. And I think that has been something that when I have people that come to me in this territory that are suffering, that is the piece that I have been able to relate to them on and to really see that if you don't have safety, you don't have security, which comes into the housing piece we talk a lot about, you will not have good mental health and you will not be able to do anything in your life. It is just something that is all encompassing. The addictions, I personally try to help many people I've got a lot of ideas on that that I won't waste our time here today speaking about, but I think to me that has to be one of the top priorities of the 20th Assembly. I also spoke this week about proactive climate change and emergency response. As an engineer, iterative process, learning from our mistakes, living documents, standard operating procedures, all of these are things that I think are very important, things that I helped and hoped to bring to the Assembly as an MLA and something that I think we really need to be looking at and being smarter with our government daytoday work and ensuring we're doing it efficiently.
And lastly, I just on this part is I wanted to speak a little bit to the federal engagement. I do say have seen an increase to the hundred percent dollars. And kudos to us all, I think, as a group for being able to be vocal and loud about some of the issues that we're facing. I have to say as much as COVID has been a terrible thing for us, I think in some ways it did us a little bit of good in highlighting to the federal government just really how behind the 8 ball we really are in here in the territory. And I do think some of that hundred percent dollars is a result of them finally having an understanding of what it means to get food into Ulukhaktok or into, you know, Sachs Harbour. And I think that it's important that the next Assembly utilize our unique consensus government to create relationships not only with the ruling federal party but also all of the opposition parties as well. We all know in this House that everybody comes to us on this side when they want to push on that side. So we need to be doing that more strategically as a territory and leveraging relationships with all three federal parties to get what we want and get them at each other in the House just like the municipalities do to us here, Mr. Speaker.
Another majorally important part to me in all of this, and pretty much actually the moment that I made a decision to ever get into politics, had to do with working with youth and women and advocacy of women in being in leadership roles. As I've mentioned before, and you may not remember this but I'm an engineer, Mr. Speaker, and I have spent my entire career dealing with a lack of female representation in my profession. It was from advocating for more women in the discipline of engineering that led me to become a politician. I remember specifically sitting with a group of Pathfinders, which is the teenagedage girls in Girl Guides and thinking to myself about a work event I just had and wondering where was my voice, what was this. And then I looked at these girls and I thought to myself, I don't want them to become 40 years old and wondering why they don't have any voice in their government, why they don't have any say, why they still feel second class. And, Mr. Speaker, for me, that was the reason that I ran for office. And one of the best things that I've had doing here was participating in the youth parliament and being one of, I hope, the most enthusiastic pages that they've ever seen. And so to have the youth with us, to have the pages here, the youth parliament, something we missed out on during COVID, has really impacted me and to being a role model to those youth and especially young girls, that is one of the most important things I carry out of this Assembly.
And as I said before, just the transformation of myself, I'm grateful for who I've become, the strength that I've learned and, yeah, the path that I find myself suddenly on versus where I thought I was going to be maybe ten years ago.
I had hoped my colleague for Thebacha would still be here because I wanted to give her a bit of a shout out because she's always talking about Rambo so I really wanted to mention my two cats, Piper and Sophie who, honestly, Mr. Speaker, we can I know this is a territory that loves their animals. But when you are a single person, and I heard my colleague speak to coming home and not having their family around, that is my reality every day. So I have to admit those cats have gotten me through some tough times. And, you know, I can't stress enough the importance of the animals. And I love that we have an Assembly where we embrace that; a territory where we embrace animals as part of our life and our wellbeing.
I don't want to belabour on this one either, but I do want to say thank you to everybody that supported the evacuation efforts in the last while as well as those that supported through COVID. We would not have been able to do a lot in the last while without our sister provinces in the south Alberta, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, BC, the Yukon. Everybody that helped us to take care of that, the firefighters and the army.
Last, Mr. Speaker, a couple of my colleagues here have touched upon their influences in their life and who they were and what was important to them. And I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that on October 4th, my mom would have been 80 years old. This would have been a very significant date for her, and it wasn't lost to me that it was the day that they unveiled the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls monument. My mom has always instilled in me a strong and my dad, a very strong passion to stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves. And so to me, it was very fitting that for her 80th birthday, I was able to stand there and do something so monumental. It is a day that I won't forget, and I was able to mark it in a different way for me than, you know, just spending a day of missing her. One of the things that my mom and my dad did for me was that they have instilled in my empathy and compassion. And that is what I bring to this role; traits, that I believe have made me the leader that I am today. And, Mr. Speaker, I'm really proud of the leader that I am today. People can say what they want to say. They can find my faults and my flaws. I've never denied them. That's the, I think, the nature of the engineers is we're just going to tell you how it is. And I take that so much to my heart, the oaths that I've taken as an engineer and as an MLA. But at the end of the day, I can tell you that I have done everything in this House with good intent, with the mindset of the people of the Northwest Territories at heart. And that will always be my motivation. If I am sitting in this House, or whether or not I'm on some other path, I know that going forward I will always be here helping and advocating. I don't see myself going back to taking water samples, Mr. Speaker. So with that in mind, I just want to say again thank you to all my colleagues. You know, I know it hasn't been easy. I have never been the easiest Member in this House, I will acknowledge that, I admit it, but at the end of the day I sure made it interesting. Have a good day, Mr. Speaker.
