Debates of October 30, 2024 (day 35)

Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about our deficit mentality in this government. What I mean is the way we think about our deficiencies, our deficits, that ends up dangerously impacting our actual financial deficit and increasing our debt burden.

Now, the Premier and the Minister of Infrastructure often refer to our infrastructure deficit in this territory. The word deficit means a lack, something that we want that we don't have or something that someone else has that we don't have.

I understand that when Cabinet goes to Ottawa, we're competing to access federal dollars, so we use this language to point out the things other places have that we don't have. But when this idea of an infrastructure deficit becomes the only story that we tell ourselves, we get into big trouble.

Our deficit is compared to what? Compared to who? Should we have the same highway and electricity grid network as Alberta does? Should every community in the NWT have paved highway access? Should every community have the same recreation facilities? We haven't really defined our ultimate goals, what would even be ideal let alone wise or responsible, and so we're left always feeling unsatisfied, that what we have is just never enough. And the list of new things to build keeps getting longer and longer, and our spending grows and our debt continues to break through every ceiling that is set.

Now, debt isn't inherently bad if you're investing wisely in building a solid foundation that will eventually return benefits. But with this deficit mentality, we rarely stop to ask why we need to build all these things beyond vague ideas about nation building and wishing that it will reduce our high cost of living. Looking back, has the Deh Cho Bridge truly made our nation stronger or lowered prices in any of our communities?

The Northwest Territories will always be a collection of many small remote communities, and no billions of dollars in infrastructure can ever change that. But instead of focusing on the isolation and the things that we lack, why don't we focus on the strengths that we gain from our remoteness and how it can bind us together and foster creativity. We have incredible people and incredible natural resources, like caribou, that continue to sustain people today, and that is something that none of the southern provinces have partly because they have too many roads. So let's stop referring to our infrastructure deficit and focus on our strengths and the wise investments we can make to build on what we already have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Frame Lake.