Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity last month to attend the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council meetings in Inuvik, where we bring all of our mayors, our chiefs and councils into Inuvik, where they have an opportunity to sit down with Cabinet, Cabinet Ministers and all of their staff and ask some pretty tough questions and also look at creating some type of resolution and give the Ministers an opportunity to look and see what’s happening in our small communities and our region with our people in that area.
I was very happy that this was my second time sitting down with the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council and listening to their concerns. This year I was very pleased to say that all the leaders from the community were very engaged, they asked a lot of good questions, the dialogue was very good. When the regional council meets, at the end of their meeting – they met for three very long days – they came up with resolutions. Last year the chair of the committee brought forth a bunch of resolutions to the Premier and his office, and they were able to deal with some of them. This year we’re waiting for those resolutions and we will continue to try to get them on the agenda. We’ve got five more weeks here in the House to try to get some of those resolutions that our leadership from back home brought forth.
The leadership was also very interested in the collaborative approach that some of these departments are doing and working together, and they support that. They support departments working together to be more effective and more efficient in the communities, especially when we have a lot of issues.
Our leadership in the Beaufort-Delta, as you are aware, is very strong. They have strong voices, they have strong leadership styles and work very well with one another. As such, for all the years of experience, their wisdom, knowledge, their expertise, I would hate to say that their voices go unheard in this House and within this government. I’ll be making sure that as we move forward over the next fiscal year that their voices and the concerns of their residents are heard in this House.
Over the next five weeks, I’ll be sure to bring some of those resolutions to our committee and look at getting support to go forth into this budget year or as we move forward with this 17th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
