Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to make comments on this last operations budget for the 17th Legislative Assembly.
Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to thank the GNWT employees for their hard work and dedication and their innovative thinking for the contribution to this budget. I know we’ve been under a fiscal restraint policy for the last three years and the work that they had to do I can only imagine to be challenging. I’d also like to thank the stakeholders, special interest groups and residents of the Northwest Territories for their input, not only into this budget but into all operations budgets right from the onset of this government.
As the Minister of Finance read the budget address on February 5th and Members of this House and residents throughout the North listened in, I can honestly say this budget demonstrates all the collaborative work this government has done over the last three years and four months. I’d like to refer to it as a masterpiece, a masterpiece that we have been working on over the years. It may not be perfect and still has some flaws, but what we have created is a foundation for others to build on.
This government has accomplished guiding action plans and strategies that will create momentum moving forward for Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly. Such action plans as the Economic Opportunities Strategy, the Oil and Gas Strategy and the Minerals Development Strategy are important to create investment and economic growth in the Northwest Territories.
However, we all know that the economy is slow and this government has known the importance of investing in one of our greatest resources in the North, and that is our people. This is demonstrated with the development of the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, the Anti-Poverty Strategy, Early Childhood Development Action Plan and the Education Renewal and Innovation Strategy. These investments will help us reach our goal of healthy, educated people free from poverty.
In regard to this budget, and as a Member representing Inuvik Boot Lake, and in the notorious words of my colleague from Nahendeh, I’m glad. I’m glad to see the continued investments into the Inuvik-Tuk highway. This project has assisted residents in Inuvik and the Hamlet of Tuk, among other communities, to work on a more regular basis and for a few years. This has resulted in a decrease in the income assistance that’s needed as well as increased support to subcontractors and small businesses, both in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, the project I would like to shed light on is the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link and the importance of moving forward with this project. The investment of the Western Arctic Centre for Geomatics is a great start as it will create the foundation for five geomatics services such as remote sensing and research support to the GNWT and other stakeholders throughout Canada and the world.
It will also assist with more investments into such programs as e-learning, telehealth, among other benefits to various departments of government. The Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link will also provide sustainable revenue for the NWT in the future.
We live in an economy that is on a cycle of boom and bust in certain areas of the NWT such as the Beaufort-Delta with the oil and gas. The investments that we put into the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link will help this government have sustainable revenue for years to come.
On the plane ride coming out of Inuvik, I sat with a physician who is working with one of his colleagues in Labrador and northern Quebec. He was talking about how this Fibre Optic Link and telehealth will lead to bigger and better things. He was actually speaking to remote technology and robots and medicine, kind of like what we’re doing with e-learning but in the medical field. That will help reduce costs getting our residents to Edmonton for ultrasounds or other high cost medical care.
Mr. Speaker, if we look at this, we’re going to need further research into this area and start to build on the equipment and resources that will be needed to do such projects and support such projects.
One other area I would like to mention is the Integrated Case Management Pilot Project in Inuvik. I believe this is a good approach to deal with our residents who have special needs and who are in very special situations. It’s a collaborative approach from all departments, Justice, Health, Education, Housing, how we help our residents of the North become members of society and contribute to society once again.
However, with each budget and each department we have reviewed, I do still have some concerns. If I don’t ask questions or criticize this budget, I feel I would not be doing my job as an MLA.
Over the last few years, we’ve been talking about child and family services in the review. Members of this Legislative Assembly tried to put $2 million into the operations budget last year so when the action plan does kick off, our people on the front line would have the support they need to implement the programs and action plans set out in the Child and Family Services Action Plan. However, we did not get that funding in there. It will be interesting to see, moving into the 2015-16 fiscal year, whether or not we are going to be able to do this action plan with the resources we already have.
I also have concerns with the Education Renewal and Innovation Strategy. Same thing, we are trying to recreate the whole education system on the dollars we still have today and implement new programs as well. Tied in with the ERI action plan is the Junior Kindergarten and Early Childhood Development. Since Junior Kindergarten rolled out, we’ve seen nothing but concerns in communities and regions to the point that as a government we had to put a motion on the floor to stop it altogether from continuing until we got the review reporting from small communities on how well this is rolling out. To have that kind of program shoved down the throats of residents, of education authorities and members of standing committees was not the right way to go about that. I’m still concerned about that, Mr. Speaker.
Something that’s pretty near and dear to my heart are the detox services and treatment facilities that we have in the Northwest Territories, or should I say lack of in the Northwest Territories. We have residents in the Northwest Territories who would like to stay home, who would like to be close to family and friends and have the support of their family and friends in this area of services. Yet, we continue to send them down south. The detox services, as much as our Minister says that they are provided in the hospitals, a lot of time when a person does sober up or comes off their drugs that they might be on, they are released from the hospital. That’s not detox services, Mr. Speaker. That’s still a concern I have. As much as we do get the lip service that we are doing detox and taking observations on moving forward, it’s not happening.
Another concern I have is with our population. Over the last two years, two fiscal years in 2013-2014, we had 4,676 residents of the Northwest Territories migrate south and if it wasn’t for some people coming in, which doesn’t even offset that, or the births, we still wouldn’t be getting a lot of the money we see in our territorial funding formula. So those are some concerns I have. With that, there are also concerns on how we’re going to do the 2,000 people coming into the Northwest Territories.
We as a government provide some of the greatest program services in Canada to the tune of $1.6 billion this year for a population of about 44,000 people, just under 44,000, about 43,800. We have to seriously ask ourselves, is this sustainable for next year or the years to come? As a government, do we have the money to provide these services and programs?
I feel that governments in the past, including this government, are making it easier for residents to become more reliant on government programs and services rather than this government empowering our people, our residents, to get a quality education, to be healthy and to further their studies, they become working citizens of the North.
When we went to Ottawa for NWT Days, I had an opportunity to sit in and speak with Scandinavian countries that are doing really good work and how they tax their residents and the tax they get provides programs and services. As I made general comments to the budget address and main estimates in Committee of the Whole, I made mention that the governments of the past failed to look at how we can implement that and how we can do business in the North. It’s too late now because we already have a high cost of living and we don’t want to increase the tax base, but that’s a model we have to look at and see how we can implement that in the Northwest Territories.
I stated earlier, when the economy is slow, as it is now, we have to take a different approach. I do commend the Department of ITI as they know this and have made more investments in this budget for the traditional economy, tourism, agriculture and even film, Mr. Speaker. They know the oil and gas is slow right now, so start to invest in something else that’s going to build the economy in the Northwest Territories and put it out to the regions.
With the oil and gas activities slow, I strongly believe that it is time that this government start to invest in our greatest resource and, as I mentioned, that’s our people. Those investments will pay off tenfold, if not more. We will have healthy, educated, skilled residents who will be ready for work when the economy picks back up. That will result in fewer people on income assistance and fewer people that need housing.
It’s not only investment in people that we need until this economy picks back up but also the need for infrastructure. We heard this loud and clear when some Members met with the Mineralogical Association of Canada. We need to create an infrastructure system that will help get our resources out to market that will help with our resource royalties in the future and help with such things as our debt and other infrastructure projects that we do need.
Before I finish here, especially since this is our last operations budget of the 17th Legislative Assembly, and as Cabinet knows and Members on this side knows, there’s a lot of work that goes on in the meeting rooms when we all converge here in Yellowknife. With that, I would personally like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs for their hard work, their wisdom, dedication, knowledge and expertise and persistence over the last three years and four months with all departments that we worked with. This budget that we’re going to pass in this sitting definitely reflects that hard work.
A bigger thank you and much appreciation goes to the staff, researchers, law clerks and committee clerks who have all supported, educated and guided us with sound advice throughout each of these budgets. Together, all of us have made an integral part creating action plans, strategies and legislation that will help improve the lives of residents of the Northwest Territories. As stated earlier, this masterpiece that we created, the budget main estimates, is not perfect, but it is a step. In fact, it’s a few steps in the right direction for a better Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
