Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the Minister of Finance’s announcement today, I can throw away this speech, I guess, a complaint about the Heritage Fund not being funded 25 percent. I commend the Cabinet and the Premier for making this bold decision for the future generations of the Northwest Territories.
Twenty-five percent is a substantial amount. It’s an amount that actually provides an amount of money of these non-renewable resources that we’re taking from this territory, giving it to the future generations for capital infrastructure, for paying down debt, exactly what we told the people of the Northwest Territories we were going to do. This is a fiscal restraint. This is something that’s responsible government. This is something that we, on this side, are willing to look at the O and M operations.
We’re seeing a declining population and we need to keep some of this stuff in check. In a year where we’ve signed on to devolution, we should be fiscally strong, but because of some of the lesser values in taxable incomes, because of forced growth costs we’re definitely in a tighter position than we actually expected after devolution, but these are some of the tough choices that we have to make now and some of the tough choices we need to make for the future generations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would have to put my statement aside, but picking up some points from the statement that I’d planned today, first and foremost I have to commend the Minister for taking a bold step, and Cabinet, in terms of increasing the Heritage Fund from 5 to 25 percent, a fairly significant investment for the NWT.
Nonetheless, the Heritage Fund is a vital component of how we use the revenues from our non-renewable resources. As we approach the implementation of the Devolution Agreement, the role of the Heritage Fund is among the important decisions that the NWT has to make. Establishing such a fund is a complex and controversial process, but it is essential to how we move forward as a territory.
The NWT has a wealth of minerals, oils and gas, and these resources are costly to develop. While it is impossible to predict when they are developed, once they are gone they will not benefit anyone. A well-managed Heritage Fund will ensure that money accrues for future needs when we develop non-renewable resources today.
There are models of successful funds in place today that promise jurisdictions will benefit from non-renewable resource development even after major operations are long gone.
There are enormous pressures to spend the resource revenues now on major infrastructure investments, such as roads, airports, hospitals and schools and on fiscally responsible debt repayment, but our constituents, the people of the NWT, have made it clear they want a meaningful portion of this money saved for the future.
Today I applaud the move of the Finance Minister to really listen to the people of the NWT and put aside 25 percent of the resource revenues towards the Heritage Fund for future investments. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
