Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What time was supper supposed to be at?
Mr. Speaker, I wasn't going to say anything today, but, you know, I just wanted to let people know, you know, the reason I ran for office. And I have I guess I've been in politics before. I have been president, you know, of the Metis local in Hay River and, you know, went to meetings. We were part of that, you know, the claim and the comprehensive claim that fell apart as well. And, you know, through that I guess I learned how to, you know, to be compassionate and empathetic and help people. And so that's what I have done most of my life. I share what I have, you know, give what, you know, if somebody needs something that I have and I don't really need it, they can have it. And that includes money, lot of times. Every day actually in the office. So I always carry around a lot of $5 bills in your pocket, not 100s or 50s.
But, you know, and that's kind of the reason. And one the other reason I ran as well is like I sat up in the House here a few times, last just R.J. got elected, and I looked around and I listened to what was being said and that. And I always believed that, you know, somebody should be challenged, all MLAs should have a challenger and, you know, the MLA at the time in Hay River South had no challenger, and I opened my big mouth and said well I guess if nobody runs, I'll throw my hat in the ring. I tried to encourage people to run but nobody so I had to walk the talk on that one. And then I got elected. And I thought what the hell am I going to do now? I can't get out of this. But I am glad I didn't get out of it. It's, you know, it's been a great time. I have been able to work with R.J., I have been able to work with all of you guys, and I have been able to do hopefully, I did some you know, something for the people in Hay River. You know, my office, you know, I usually work every day. The office is usually opened in the wintertime 6, 6:30 in the morning. It allows the street people, the people on the street, if they have to get out of their night shelter, they will come over for coffee and snacks as well, so. You know, it's important to provide that, plus I get all the news of what happened that night or the night before and, you know, if I need somebody, I just one of them come in the office and I just say I am looking for so and so. Usually five minutes later the other person shows up. So it's actually pretty good that way. And, you know, it's important as well as an MLA to walk around town and just talk to people and, you know. The other thing I like to do too is to, you know, even when I'm sitting up here, when I come in on, you know, early or something to Yellowknife when we have session, is just to call people. Like I will just sit there and just I haven't talked to anybody in a while and give them a shout. And just see how they're doing. And, you know, even like I noticed the people that moved to Yellowknife and I still call them and talk to them.
But, you know, to me, the residents have always been important and that's why I ran, is that I wanted to give a voice to the people. I wanted people to have access to their MLA, and I think that I have achieved that. It's probably been my biggest achievement, is letting them have access or allow, you know, allowing me to be accessible to them. You know, I am there for them. I realize that without them I would be I wouldn't be needed. None of us would be needed. So it's important that, you know, that that was important to me to make sure that happened.
The other and the other thing too, as well, is that, you know, even though they have access, access isn't good enough. It doesn't go far enough. You actually have to, you know, you got to be able to listen. You got to be able to take their issue. You got to be able to understand you should understand where they come from. And Hay River, I am lucky because I was born and raised. And so I know the people, I know their background, and it is very important you know that. Because a lot of times the solution is already there. And you got to be able to take that solution and, and if you need support from Cabinet, give them the answer. They are busy enough as it is. Make their work easy. Because if you let them think then nothing happens. Sometimes.
And like R.J. said, you know, we talked about disasters in Hay River. I went through the 1963 flood. I went through the I went through a number of other floods as well before, before the one in 2022. And in that flood, we forget about the about the explosion that happened. You know, a House blew up. And it took out about four or five houses around it, you know. And so there was that at the same time.
The big one though I guess for me was the highrise, like I was just astonished that, and I am still astonished, that that thing is sitting empty. You know, I went to a meeting and if we would have had the right officials and people sitting up front, I think that place would have been operational right now. We would have had those rooms. You see highrises all over the place have fires but they get up you know, they are up and running in no time. But, you know, we got into, you know, you know, it just got into a match with the owner and people didn't like him, but he had a big heart, that guy. You know, he provided space to people nobody else would provide space to, you know. Those are the things that people don't know but I know that, you know. I talked to him and I talked to him lots, and now he's passed away, the highrise is sitting empty, and we're, you know and we're short accommodation in Hay River.
Yeah, so you know, we've had our issues in the last while. We've had, you know, drug overdoses. We've had more than our fair share of them. Like I have had people come through my office and, you know, I can name off probably five of them that have passed away because of it. And I talked to them about it, you know. And they knew that's probably what was going to be what happened to them and that's exactly what happened to them. So we have got to do something about that, you know. And the illicit drug trade, you know. Stuff like that is never going to go away, but somehow we got to dampen it. We got to lessen. And that's got to be through, you know, we got to pass legislation, like the SCAN Act, and the Forfeiture Act, then those are things that we actually have to do. Because otherwise if we do nothing, nothing's gonna happen. We got maybe we got to pressure the federal government to, you know, to make some change to the Criminal Code. Maybe we got to make, you know, the drug, you know, people who are selling on the street, you know, if they get caught, we got to make them pay. Maybe they got to go to jail, you know. We got to you know, somehow we got to do something because it is just like, you know, you take some of them off the street and it's just like water, it just fills in right away. And we see that in Hay River. And it's, it's my friends, our friends, our family members. Like none of us, you know, none of us can say we don't know somebody, don't know anybody that is being impacted by it.
Then we have housing issues. We will always have housing issues. This government is gonna this government isn't going to solve the housing issues. You know, people have to work toward it solving as well. It has got to be an approach, you know, from government, individuals, Indigenous governments, industry, everybody has got to do something. You know, and part of it is people want to be homeowners but I was watching something on TV the other day and people just can't own their homes anymore. It's just too costly. And even now the rental market is getting out of reach. So we are going to probably see more people on the street. So how do we fix it here when they you know, when we see that getting worse in the south? You know, we got to do something. You know, we got to we got to make it so people, you know, can have jobs so they can maybe, you know, they can contribute but first of all they got to learn how to work. You know, I learned how to work, from, you know, from my parents. That's why I work long hours. I'm probably crazy to do that but that's what I do. And I think that my kids learned that. But I think a lot of times we want something better for our children and we make it easier for them, and that's the problem, I think that we make it too easy and maybe we shouldn't be doing that. You know, we need maybe we need' course on, you know, just how to, on work ethics, because there's a lot of people that don't have that anymore, so.
You know, in all these impacts, in all these disasters that have happened for Hay River, you know, we have got mental health issues. People are stressed and, you know, they are going through hell after this. And I think that a lot of people are shut in right now. We are losing residents. Residents are moving out of Hay River. They are moving they are moving south, you know. This was the catalyst that pushed them over the edge and said it's time to go.
Businesses, the same thing. You know, we've had T businesses our businesses, probably, you know, two and a half, three months, had their doors shut. You know, if you look at one or $2,000 a day, you know, of lost revenue, that's pretty bad, you know. And now they are looking at, you know, they got that on top, they got that and then they are trying to go compete, you know, a market that people just go on the internet and order whatever they want so it's tough.
Somehow, we got to we got to look at reality. Things are changing in this world. Climate change, you know. It's impacting you know, it's impacting the North. Hay River, one year we got too much water. Next, this year, we got no water, you know. It impacts the shipping industry. So what does that mean for Hay River, if we have low water for the next ten years, then we know what's gonna happen is that we are going to have to find another route to get materials up north. Then and then we will be looking, and we should have looked at this years ago and should have been built already, is the Mackenzie Valley Highway, you know. That should have been done. I worked on that I worked on the piece there around river between two mountains when I was I think I told you when I was 17 years old or 16 years old. You know, it's only went up to Wrigley, that's as far as it's got. So it's you know, I look at all this stuff and I know that history because I have been up here. And when I hear people talking about it, if you are not really from here and you came up, you don't know that history. And I am lucky enough to know a lot of people up and down the Valley and so, you know, and that's the other thing too, is that if I need know something that, you know, happened around somewhere I just call somebody, you know, and ask them and they tell me. So, you know. And so you just kinda got of be plugged in to that type of that network.
And then we have got then we got health care. You know, we got the Hay River Health and Social Service Authority, we got the NTHSSA, and we are both in the same boat. You know, it's hard to find doctors. It's hard to find, you know, health care workers, and it's even going to be harder now that Manitoba has, you know, elected an NDP Premier because he said that they're gonna, they're gonna entice health workers to go to, go to Manitoba and they are gonna be the number 1 provider of health services in Canada. So that's what we have got to compete against. And, you know, and those and those are the type of things that we have to look at doing as well. And, you know, if we have to do that amalgamation, bring them together, if that makes sense to me and, you know, we just gotta do it.
You know, the other thing is with all these disasters, you know, like I said the businesses had, you know, they were short money. They lost revenue. You know, some of their infrastructure, you know, was lost. This government, you know, we provided some money to them. We provided a little bit more to Hay River, you know, and I let people know that and I just hope that the criteria isn't so onerous that nobody actually uses it or just says to hell with it, and I am just hoping that's not gonna happen. But we do have a gap and that gap is the insufficient financial support to those people in Hay River. And I am talking about Hay River now. You know, Yellowknife, you guys had two days to get out of here. We had minutes. And we had people go through the fire. We had people burnt. We've had animals and pets lost. We've had vehicles lost. We had people almost died. Like I don't know how like there's gonna be trauma. And those people ran, they got a place to stay, they paid for it. Their mind wasn't on I hope the government pays for it. I don't think so. You know, and I am not talking a lot of people. But now I ask for something, I asked for that type of support. All I hear is oh, we can't do that, there's no money. That's BS, as far as I am concerned. Like, we need support for them, and we need that we need to show that compassion. And I hope that, you know, the Minister of finance and ECE and Cabinet sit down and talk about that. Like it's needed. People, people are struggling right now.
You know, the cost of living, it's just it's gone crazy. And, you know, I got people from Hay River saying, you know, there's turkeys are a hundred dollars here, how much are they in Yellowknife, can you bring some back for me. Well, I don't really want to start taking food back from Yellowknife to Hay River and then cutting out the retailers there. So, you know, we've got to do something. The amount of money that we have been giving people, you know, $750 or whatever, it's minimal. It's not a lot. So I hope that, that Cabinet will sit back down, find a few dollars to make sure that those people who ran out when we told them to, you know, were traumatized, were injured, lost their vehicles and pets, and other animals, that they get a little bit of support. And like I say, I am not talking a lot of them.
The other thing that we are doing, and Kevin mentioned that today, is like you take a look at Cameron Hills. We are just bleeding money from the territories to Alberta. All that work up there, done by Albertans last year. And it will be finished with Albertans this year. And who is challenging that? Who's challenging them? You know, we need our First Nations to step up as well and they got to push us so we can push the federal government and push ourselves to provide that support and make sure that the work stays here. You know, if we are going to have a remediation economy, we need to work to be done by the Northerners and, you know, that includes like, like we got larger companies here. Maybe they are not large enough but they, you know, they are the ones that also got to step up and bid on things. So we also need the Indigenous governments, and corporations and businesses, to step up as well and look at joint venturing if they have to with northern companies and not running to Alberta or BC or somewhere else to joint venture with somebody and then still bleed more money. Like, you know, we got to work together on this. And I seen all this happen. Like I have been around long enough, I seen a lot of the mistakes that we made, and I am hoping we can change it.
You know, and then I just got something on the computer. Our employment rate has dropped, you know, from 74 percent to 70.9 percent. And, you know, that might be part of because of, you know, some of the disasters we had. Our Indigenous, our workforce is still remaining the same. There has been no change.
You know, for Hay River itself, you know, is we got Hay River, we got to reinvent ourselves, just because of the way the world is changing, the way the the climate's changing, the way the economy is changing. At one point in time, like when I was younger, I worked up in the Arctic, and Jackie talks about that quite a bit, is about the oil and gas industry, you know. That made me who I am today. It gave me that work ethic, paid for my schooling, paid for R.J.'s schooling, the kids' schooling, you know, and so we need that type of industry in the North and we got to champion that. And right now it seems like the only thing is the mines. So what do we have to do to entice them to me come here. It's usually money. If they are not going to make money they are not going to come here, you know, at the end of the day. You can build all the roads for them but if it's cheaper to go to South America and destroy something down there and make more money, that's what they are going to do. So, but we still have to work with them. We have to, you know, make it so that it's less onerous to work in the Northwest Territories, and that's something that hopefully the next with the next government they won't have to deal with what we had to deal with which is COVID and every other darn thing. And they will be able to actually do something. So, yeah.
And the other thing that we got to do is champion North. Like I said, champion northern businesses. Like there is a lot of northern businesses here that needs support, they need help. We got a limited we got limited opportunities. We got a limited base to work from. A lot of times you find businesses competing against each other for, you know, for something that's small and then whoever gets it might joint venture with somebody from the south and then nobody wins at the end of the day.
And people talk about, you know, myself like, for a while I did fine there. I was in the manufacturing business and I was building industrial trailers that went into Alberta. I probably built 150 of them, you know. And I probably, $150,000 a pop so you can figure that out. Plus I rent a lot of equipment. And that money all that work was in Alberta, all the things that I was all the units that I was building was going to Alberta, all that money from Alberta was coming back this way. And that's what we need for Hay River. We need to make it the manufacturing capital of the Northwest Territories.
We have, we have shipping there, or hopefully we still will have shipping. It's a good central point, not only to move, you know, infrastructure north but also to move it back into Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, you know. Like I find I have sold units in, you know, BC as well, so. There is a lot of opportunity there. The Premier gave me some support when she was Minister of housing and that was kind of the well, I don't know if it was support or a death blow, I am not sure. But, you know, it's one of those things, you know, where the industry, the oil and gas industry dropped. It went down, and usually it used to only go down for about a year. This time it was for about three or four years and it never came back, and it basically killed me. And but not just me. A lot of southern firms in the same business have the same issues; they are not there anymore, you know. And so there's and that's the thing. That's where we have to try and support those businesses a little more and that's why I am glad that you know, the other day we passed the Act there and gave the I guess I can't say BDIC anymore, Prosper North. But at the end of the day, give them a little bit more authority, allow them to get out there and actually help business. That's what we need, you know. And move a business out of them into banking because, you know, we want to see businesses deal with conventional lenders. The good thing about conventional lenders, they don't really care. As long as they get their payments, they don't care you know, they don't really care too much about you whereas the BDIC or the Prosper North I would hope that they would be out there going around talking to their clientele as well, we need to do that. But, you know, it's, I guess I just see all the things we could do but at the end of the day, for me it's about that person that comes to me and says I got nowhere to live. I am on the street. I've got no money, you know. I got no food. And, you know, a lot of times one day somebody came from Yellowknife, came to Hay River. They wanted to get back to Yellowknife. And there was no help for him. So I phoned up R.J., I said I'm just gonna buy the person a ticket and they can go home. So he you know, so he jumped in and paid half the ticket. It's just easiest. It solved the problem and it's done, and we move on. And kind of that's the approach that I take, and I am hoping, you know, that that, you know, people in Hay River recognize what we have been able to accomplish. And also, it's, you have to work, like we are lucky in Hay River we have got two MLAs and you have to work with each other, and you got to talk things through. You got to, you know, gather information and, you know, things like that, so.
One thing about being an MLA I guess is I never like I don't really find it difficult in the sense that except for it's lots of work and, you know, you got to, you know, you got to do the research and you got to, you know, find the answers and stuff like that and find but the most important thing is finding a solution. And a timely solution. Because a lot of times we take too long. Like today, I have been answering emails as well and, you know, I've sent health an email today. And hopefully they will fix the problem, you know, the issue on that. But those are the things that people want.
Is it suppertime yet? I can keep going?
And so yeah, but, you know, at the end the day, it's been enjoyable here; there's no doubt about that. You know, I come to Yellowknife for a rest. Hay River is where the work is. That's where I have to work. And other than that, I guess, what else can I say?
And I just thank everybody for putting up with me. And one of the reasons I go down that hallway in Cabinet, they always have food there. That's why I go there. But anyways, I thank you for that, and but the gap for the people that went through that fire. I want you guys to think about that and find some way to help them. Because I don’t want to go back home and tell them the door is shut. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Replies to Commissioner's address. Colleagues, one more record you broke, the most replies to Commissioner's address in one day. 11 total. Good job.
