Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to just follow my colleague here. I too read the Budget Dialogue Taking Stock report, and the Minister certainly came into the Sahtu with having some of my people sit and listen to the Minister give the current fiscal realities of our government, giving us the realities of the size of our population and the fiscal picture if we don’t get any type of economic development moving in the Northwest Territories.
Some of our regions are wealthy in the resources, and like the Yellowknife area around here rich in diamond mines, there is lots of revenue royalty coming out of it. The other day I was at Tim Horton’s grabbing something to eat there and I saw two young fellows come in from Deline, and they went to the mining project training here. These two young fellows were pretty excited, because once they finished the mining training project they had jobs at the diamond mine. They were happy and excited. Actually, one young guy has an eight-month-old daughter, and he said I’m doing something good for my daughter. The other guy is working here because of the mines.
Come out to the Sahtu and our people are hungry for work. Our people want to work. They know the realities, and right now we are hooped because we do not have infrastructure such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway going into the Sahtu. Potential is there for a lot of energy, a lot of work, and we can see it now today. We cannot move our resources, and that’s a shame in this government here.
I’m hoping that the Premier, the Minister and the Cabinet Ministers do the best they can to get the borrowing limit raised. If not, we’ve got to make some tough decisions, and right now it’s cold out there, and that’s the reality.
I’m going to be asking questions on the budget. It’s a good report, but it tells me wake up and smell the coffee because some hard times are coming if we don’t get the borrowing limit raised and we don’t get the infrastructure that we need.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
