Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just a few brief comments here. I want to start off by highlighting the statement by our Finance Minister that no non-renewable resource revenues will go towards government programs and services. Again, great concerns on this point and it flies absolutely in the face of what our Premier has said to the nation, very publicly on TV just days before this budget address, where he explicitly said that non-renewable resource revenues will, in fact, be used for programs and services, and I agree with that. So I assume there will be some correction made on that in line with the Premier’s comments.
That sort of approach actually reflects our ever-increasing tendency to make things a luxury for industry and austerity for our people. What we need is real balance between those. We need both of those categories to be supported but in a serious balance. Right now I think Members will agree we have some major deficits in the programs and services that we offer. To that end, in fact, we have made lots of suggestions, in fact, some very explicit suggestions particularly in the area of health and renewable energy, prevention and justice. Unfortunately, I saw none of those requests responded to in this budget and we will have an interesting discussion over the next few days.
I might add that the interests of Members are so modest that we are talking about less than one-half of 1 percent of this budget. That’s sort of hard work that has been done by committee to carve down our ask into a very reasonable amount, recognizing that we do need to live within our means. At the same time, we do need to serve our people and our people are speaking to us.
I think we’re all excited about the new mines that are lining up for development in the Northwest Territories, but how many people are already being brought in from outside the Northwest Territories to work in our diamond mines? We’re failing on that front. Look at our small communities; look at the unemployment there. We have some serious challenges here and we have some amazing opportunities to do things differently to help, for example, build local capacity and build our local economies. This Member and my colleagues, I know, stand ready to work with Cabinet to really access these opportunities and make sure we do a good job there.
Although we have a long way to go, we are hopefully getting on the road and we’re here to help. I am looking forward to discussions with the remainder of this budget. I appreciate this opportunity to respond to the budget address. Mahsi.
