Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to start with an outline of my statement on priorities. I’d like to talk a little bit about how I set the priorities that I’m going to talk about shortly. I’ll present some high-level priorities with some actions that I hope can help meet them. I want to talk a little bit about how we work together, and then I have a few closing remarks.
In terms of how I set the priorities that I’m about to talk about, these obviously came up during the election campaign. We’ve had extensive briefings from GNWT departments over the last week. We had a meeting on Saturday with northern leaders, and I’ve been listening carefully to what the other MLAs have been saying. So, I’ve identified three high-level priorities that I believe are appropriate for the 18th Assembly.
The first one – and I heard a lot about this during the campaign – was reducing the cost of living. I believe we need to focus on systemic changes that will reduce our cost of living by building more self-sufficient communities. This will also help diversify our economy and can help with climate change. We need to reduce the cost of energy by expanding energy conservation and conversion programs through Arctic Energy Alliance. We can make these programs more accessible to condominiums and lower income families through a revolving fund. Loans are provided to cover capital costs and are paid back over time through savings on energy bills. This may also require working with local governments to give them authority to enter into or administer such programs.
We should also refocus the Northwest Territories Power Corporation towards community energy self-sufficiency, rather than relying on big projects in big grids.
We should build stronger food security to help lower our cost of living by promoting more local food production through community gardens, commercial market gardening and rejuvenation of local fisheries.
Finally, we need to work with the Yukon and Nunavut to ensure that the federal government increases and indexes the northern residents tax deductions, including setting and publicizing a fair value for lowest return airfares, instead of making us guess and then get audited.
We also need to work together on Nutrition North.
My second priority, getting a resource management house in order, or the evolve part of devolve and evolve.
We need to develop and put in place a systematic review of all the 26 pieces of mirrored legislation that were passed in a frenzy in March 2014 to facilitate devolution with virtually no public review. A systematic review could be done as a joint committee with Regular MLAs and Cabinet in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Council on Lands and Resource Management.
We did not get devolution to replicate the systems put in place by the federal government. We need a roadmap and set of principles to guide us in how we want to manage our own resources. For example, we need to ensure there is a fair return to the public purse from our resources. In 2015-16, GNWT will raise more money from taxes on alcohol and tobacco - $37 million – than we will get to keep from resource revenues, less than $30 million. This does not seem right to me. We should be managing our oil and gas resources using an independent body modelled after the co-management boards where Aboriginal governments are partners, rather than house this authority with the same GNWT Minister who promotes resource development.
We also need to protect the public from further liabilities from resource development through mandatory financial security, rather than the discretionary disjointed system that is currently in place.
We need to ensure that our Heritage Fund has a legislated and defined revenue stream with clear objectives and strong public governance to share some of the benefits with future generations from our non-renewable resources.
Another necessary part of this getting our resource management house in order will be to complete land rights agreements with the Dehcho, Akaitcho, the Northwest Territories Metis Nation and other Aboriginal governments. I look forward to a new approach from GNWT and stronger oversight by the Regular MLAs.
My third main priority is healthy communities. This is a complex set of inter-related issues that includes homelessness and the need for better housing, early childhood development, affordable and accessible daycare, improved education including post-secondary opportunities, continued work on the Anti-Poverty Strategy, promotion or our official languages and cultures, expanded addiction prevention and treatment programs, stronger investment in our youth and seniors, and last, but certainly not least, building a more equitable society to ensure that women take their rightful place.
I met with many advocates on these issues during the campaign and attempted to answer many questionnaires and surveys, like my fellow MLAs, and I want to continue to work on these issues.
My focus within this broad set of issues will be on children and housing. We should increase funding for early childhood development programs and services as we all want to get our children off on the right foot. This is simply one of the best investments we can make as a government with tremendous cost savings down the road. This necessary work on children also includes the universal child care system for which we already have a feasibility study. We can learn from other communities’ successes on homelessness and affordable housing. The Housing First approach will lead to improved health and education outcomes. Without safe shelter, progress in other issues, it’s difficult at best.
I look forward to working with all the other MLAs and Cabinet on this important suite of issues under the theme of healthy communities.
Now I would like to talk a little bit about how we work together. Change was certainly a major theme and outcome in the recent election campaign. We have started that change by separating the nomination and voting for the Premier, and I will be working towards more improvements in transparency and accountability. In retrospect, this round table where individual MLAs put forward their priorities as equals should have been done before the nomination process for Premier and Cabinet.
I want to pick up on some of the good work done by the last Frame Lake MLA, Ms. Wendy Bisaro, to legislate and implement an ombudsman for the Northwest Territories, and I look forward to support, and I have heard support, from other MLAs. The process whereby Cabinet will prepare a mandate in consultation with the Regular MLAs and have it passed in this House is a good one. To ensure good progress and performance, it is essential that there is a rigorous and public mid-term review of not just that mandate but of the Ministers themselves. I have a strong sense that we all have come prepared to do our homework and to do our best for the Northwest Territories. I look forward to serving on strong and potentially realigned committees that conduct as much of their business in public as possible.
A few closing remarks, if I may. I would like to thank the 17th Assembly for its work on transition and our staff and the public service for the helpful briefings over the last week and my fellow MLAs for listening to me today. I will listen to you carefully and look forward to the opportunities and challenges of working together.
Lastly, I wish to assure everyone that my own priorities and our collective priorities are subject to updating and change, based on new events and what we hear. Even if an issue was not raised in this round table today, it doesn’t mean that we’re not going to work on it. But, at the end of the day, we cannot possibly do everything and we will have to make choices. We all come to this government with different backgrounds, education and experience. While I may be knowledgeable on resource management matters, I will be relying on other MLAs for their knowledge and wisdom on social issues, youth, and more. We should take advantage of this diversity to help us build a better Northwest Territories. Mr. Chair, that concludes my statement.