Thank you. Colleagues, I'm going to begin by thanking the constituents of Range Lake for re-electing me as your MLA. I also want to acknowledge my incredible campaign team. Without them, I wouldn't be here today. I want to officially congratulate every Member-elect in the House today. Good job; we're all here, we have a lot of work to do. Welcome.
This is a historical Assembly in that, for the first time in the history of the Northwest Territories, we have a gender-balanced Assembly. Women in my riding talked of the need to increase the number of women in leadership, and we have accomplished this within the Legislative Assembly, but this work is not finished. Women still face glass ceilings in many areas, but we are seeing a change in societal expectations for women, and I'm excited to see what these coming four years will bring.
During my door-knocking, people in masses expressed their concerns for the economy and the cost of living. They talked about the need to diversify and build on our tourism potential and the economic potential of continuing with the Polytechnic University, but the majority of the people and businesses in my riding talked about the need to invest more in our mineral resources sector and finish the outstanding land claims to be able to move forward.
We know we are in a downturn in the mineral resources sector. We talk about the end of life of our diamond mines, but if we don't start investing now we are not looking at 10 to 15 years to the end of our main economic driver; we are talking about many, many more years till we see an increase in this sector. Mines are not just suddenly found by explorers out looking; it takes many years from the time a prospector finds a potential site till the mines are actually built and in operation.
Colleagues we don't have time to wait anymore. We need to invest now to ensure that, in 15 years, we have other opportunities to support our residents. The last Assembly passed the Mineral Resources Act, and I believe we need to make the development of regulations for this act an immediate priority for this government. The development of these regulations is critical for the mining industry, the Government of the Northwest Territories, Indigenous governments, and many of our businesses and residents. We need to work closely with all stakeholders to ensure the regulations meet the needs of all concerned parties.
Constituents also talked about the need to strengthen our education system, perhaps more so because I am still the Education Minister, but, colleagues, they are right. What's the use of improving our economy if we don't have northern people with the skills to access the employment opportunities?
As well, countries who have invested heavily in education are seeing their economy increase with the production of plumbers, carpenters, nurses, lawyers, entrepreneurs, et cetera. Social issues related to poverty are also lowered, as more people have the skills to get higher-paid employment, which in turn leads to fewer people on income support and less need for public housing.
To address the needs within our education system we also need to increase our parental and family support. Almost half of our children in the Northwest Territories are not developmentally ready when they enter school, and this is not okay. We need a higher focus on pre- and postnatal education and supports so that new parents, young parents, and struggling parents have supports to help them raise their children to be the best they can be.
Once we get our children to the school doors, we need to have appropriate educational supports for them. Schools cannot be allowed to continue to try to address the increasing needs of students with the same, or less, funding. The funding formula in itself will need to be reviewed, as the current formula leaves the potential for schools to fight between themselves for students because the current funding is allocated based on numbers. We need to adequately fund our schools so they can focus on quality education versus focusing on making sure they have enough students to fund their costs. Strengthening our JK to 12 cannot be done by the GNWT alone. We need to work closer with school boards and the Northwest Territories Teachers Association if we are going to get this right and get the buy-in needed to succeed.
We also have huge needs in our postsecondary. Yellowknife needs a campus, as the current rented one is bursting at the seams. Fort Smith and Inuvik have beautiful campuses, but there is a need for adequate student accommodations in those communities. The Government of the Northwest Territories will need to work diligently with our federal counterparts to access funding to support the expansion of our postsecondary facilities.
Colleagues, the last Assembly committed to three strong campuses and three strong communities, and we need to build on the programming and services at each of the campuses, but we can't forget our smallest communities. We currently have 21 community learning centers in communities that also need to be included in the development of our post-secondary. We need to invest in technology and build on our community learning centres so students who are not able to travel can still access some post-secondary courses.
We are implementing the Northern Distance Learning Program into our high schools to address the higher grade levels, and it is working, with our most northern schools now graduating students who have been accepted immediately into post-secondary programs without having to do the upgrading. This program is working within our high schools, so we need to expand it to our post-secondary.
Colleagues, I clearly heard from over 100 students at the three campuses that they wanted to maintain their post-secondary within their own communities and, if we are going to address the educational needs of students, we need to have every community in mind as we continue this journey.
Another major concern I heard from my constituents is the desperate needs within the healthcare system. I have heard from many, many healthcare professionals that they are overworked due to the serious staffing shortages, some even crying as they shared their stories of desperation. Many feel their voices are not respected and some say that they have literally been silenced by the bureaucracy. This is not okay. All employees and all residents need to have an opportunity to share what they think is working, what is not, and what needs to change.
Within my riding, there is a feeling that we are at a crisis point and this needs to be addressed immediately. We need to hear the concerns of staff and work diligently on a recruitment and retention strategy that focuses on meeting our immediate needs for staffing, acknowledging the current workers who are not feeling appreciated, and increasing our training of northern workers able to take on our healthcare occupations.
The last major issue that was raised by many residents was the need to continue to address the homelessness situation in Yellowknife. To address this, though, we need to increase the number of homes and shelters outside Yellowknife, as the majority of homeless people are from the communities. This is not to keep them out of our capital; this is because people who are struggling and decide to make positive changes to their lives have a better chance for success if they have healthy friends and family close by.
We also need to continue to provide a continuum of care from Housing First, transitional and semi-independent housing, and emergency shelters. No one model fits all, and we need to try to address the needs of all.
Finally we need to address the pain that many people live with every day of their lives. This means an increase in mental health and addictions support in the Northwest Territories, both mainstream programs and within an Indigenous lens, as well.
Colleagues, I could go on. People who know me know I can go on a long time; but the one thing I did stress in my campaign trail is the need to have fewer priorities for this Assembly so we can ensure we are properly addressing the concerns. Within this new Assembly the priorities I personally would like to see include the need to strengthen our economy and complete the land claims, an increase in financial resources to our education system, a strong recruitment/retention plan for needed professionals in all fields, and a continued focus on providing adequate housing for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.