Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use my Member’s statement today to comment on some of the remarks I’ve heard the Premier make over the last little while.
In his sessional statement at the beginning of this month the Premier mentioned that we must manage government expenditures. Thank goodness that’s still a focus. We absolutely must pursue the goal of matching expenditures to our revenue.
The Premier went on to mention some actions the government might take to manage our expenditures — identifying areas for financial improvement and reinvesting our dollars wisely, for example. I agree that both are completely necessary. In our current economic climate it’s mandatory that the target of all of our investments is that of reducing the cost of living.
As to managing expenditures, I unfortunately have little faith that the cuts we anticipate in the upcoming operations budget for ’09–10 will in fact be thought out and researched. Once bitten, twice shy, unfortunately. And in my view NWT residents were badly bitten by the cuts made in the budget we passed last June.
There’s also a need for the government to review existing policies. They must be viewed through a different lens and amended to enable residents, not create roadblocks to their efforts to gain independence. As the strategic initiative committee goes about its business of refocusing government, I hope that the revamping of policy will be front and centre of its agenda.
A couple of times I’ve heard the Premier speak of regionalization in the NWT but with no accompanying explanation. I wonder just what this means and how it will be beneficial to the NWT and our constituents.
To my last point, Mr. Speaker. The Premier has stated that subsidies lower the cost of living for us. I cannot agree. Subsidies make life affordable but don’t actually lower the price of commodities like gas or milk. Nor do they change the actual expense of an accommodation unit. Subsidies stifle our people and keep them reliant on someone else instead of themselves. We need to work towards elimination of all the subsidies the government provides. We need to find a way to make people independent, providing for themselves and leading productive, satisfying lives.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
