Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Microphone turned off] …among the most scenic, accessible, promising regions of the NWT. It is rich in resources, home to a world-renowned national park and named for one of the earth’s most majestic rivers, and now we have a completed bridge.
However, the potential of the Deh Cho area remains underdeveloped. The unemployment rate in Fort Providence was 30 percent in 2009, while the average for the NWT was closer to 10 percent. NWT residents are consistently among the highest wage earners in Canada, but at the same time, 32 percent of households in the Deh Cho report incomes of no more than $15,000 per year.
Seasonal employment is more common than in any other parts of the territory. Jobs remain concentrated in Yellowknife where the employment rate is around 80 percent, while higher in other communities, and even compared to the national average, suggesting things in the NWT are way out of proportion.
These trends are not sustainable. Quality of life suffers in our small communities where there are limited opportunities for employment and the people feel increasingly forced away from traditional ways of life. Youth look for jobs and education elsewhere, and more times than not permanently leave their home communities. Too often we look to rapid-paced, large-scale industrial development as a quick fix to some of these problems, but we see how that can only lead to boom and bust in areas and more unsustainability.
Fortunately, these trends are reversible. Many resourceful individuals throughout the Deh Cho and the NWT are dedicated to making the most of opportunities available to them. Already we are seeing grassroots initiatives in areas such as local biomass, tourism, agriculture and small business. The GNWT should do all it can to motivate and encourage these efforts and control the pace and scale of industrial development.
Devolution presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take charge of our lands and resources, put government jobs into regions and collect some of the wealth from non-renewable resource development. I look forward to the ways the GNWT can support the conclusion of the Deh Cho process. Also, at the same time, I will look with optimism that eventually the Canadian Zinc will one day become an operational mine.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
With cooperation, collaboration and sustained effort from all sides, the Deh Cho will become one of the most prosperous and attractive regions of the NWT. Thank you.
