Thank you, Mr. Clerk. I would like to congratulate everyone here for all your hard work to be able to represent your riding and being the ridings' voice. As well, I'd like to thank everyone who put their name forward to run for these same positions. It takes a lot of commitment to put your name forward for public office. I am very excited and look forward to working with you all for the next four years.
I would like to personally thank the residents of the Nahendeh for allowing me into their homes to discuss what we need to work on for the next four years. Each of the six communities have similar and unique issues, and I will share some of them here today with you. I would like to thank them for allowing me to represent them for a second term. It is a very humbling experience, and I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart.
To my team and family, thank you for all your support, advice, and encouragement as we move forward.
Colleagues, this is a summary of what I heard that we need to work on for the next four years. I will try to keep it high-level where possible, but some of my returning colleagues will know I do get into the weeds a little bit sometimes.
Working with Indigenous governments moving forward. The region would like to see the Government of the Northwest Territories come to some resolution with the outstanding claims and processes, especially in the Nahendeh Dehcho First Nation and Acho Dene. In speaking with regional leadership, we have not seen any improvements over the past four years and it seems to be going backwards in some cases, especially in the Nahendeh.
We need to build on relationships. We need to make it a point to sit down and listen to what the people have to say and share. Hearing and listening to the people often require creativity in addressing concerns, issues, and challenges. Building relationships is a cornerstone to serving, which fosters respectful, trusting relationships, which then builds healthier and more productive communities.
Personal and professional integrity is built on trusting relationships. Trust and respect are not entitlements; they are earned. We need do our utmost to be honest and forthright in working through solutions to address their issues and concerns and be authentic and transparent throughout the progress. Delivery of authentic services to people is not delivered in lip service or a box that can be checked off, or saying we consulted and are trying, when in fact we did not. Service to people is not a cookie-cutter approach; personal and professional integrity needs to be the guidepost.
I feel the Indigenous governments' processes need to be completed, which will create certainty for industry and investment in the North.
Colleagues, we need to work towards the well-being and self-reliance of our people and our communities, valuing our knowledge keepers, as I just recently found out, instead of calling them elders, by listening to them, paying special attention to their traditional knowledge and meeting their needs for care in the NWT.
We need to continue to invest with partners in infrastructure that enhances our well-being as individuals, situation as the long-term facilities; making homes more energy efficient, which would include increasing funding to the Arctic Energy Alliance. The 18th Assembly increased their budget to enhance the work that they are currently doing. I look at the success they have had in small communities, such as Jean Marie River, where they helped the band and homeowners become more energy efficient. This needs to be done for all communities.
NWT Housing needs to work with small community governments to establish a year-round maintenance program for looking after the knowledge keepers in their homes. It's horrendous when you go into these people's homes and they don't have the support there to fix their homes.
Work with the federal government to make better use of the Nutrition North program for the communities. Each community should be able to access this program, especially in the North.
Social services positions for elders. We talk about our elders, but we don't have a support system in place. We need to create a bill and positions to help them. They are our foundation, and we need to respect that.
Increase homecare positions in the communities. This will help create jobs and help look after our most vulnerable people.
Relook at the seniors' fuel subsidy issue and add funds to it, instead of giving a pot and just dividing it as we create uses for it.
The Mackenzie Valley Highway road to Whati needs to be completed first and foremost. This will have an impact on all of the smaller communities, and we have to understand this is how our residents move forward.
Lease payments need to be reduced from 5 percent to 3 percent. I know we started out at 10 percent last sitting, and we got to 5 percent, but we need to go to 3 percent. We need to reduce the cost of living for all residents. When you are looking at elders and they are sitting there and having to pay over $3,000 for a home for the lease payments; not cool, so we need to work on that to reduce that.
Equity lease issues need to be resolved in the next four years. This has been ongoing, and as people, my colleagues, have heard, I spoke up in this House about this. In my riding, it's 26, and my colleague's from the Deh Cho, it's 46. People are being put into a situation where the government is not honouring their commitment.
Highway No. 1 needs to be completed, and what I mean by that is chipsealing from Fort Providence all the way to Wrigley. I understand the struggles that some of the bigger centres have with their highways, but come drive down our highway. See what gravel roads are like. I have to give credit to the staff and the contractors who look after those highways. They do a great job with what they are given, but we need to fix this. Similarly, Highway No. 7, we need to complete the chipsealing process on that road. We need to enhance that because there are some opportunities now happening in the Deh Cho and the Nahendeh, and we need to help make sure the infrastructure is there so that the residents can benefit from it.
Colleagues, we need to respond to the NWT residents for safe and affordable housing and address the homelessness issue. Public housing units have a long waiting list and no new infrastructure occurring. When you see new buildings built, old buildings get torn down. We need to use those buildings to help our homelessness situation. We need to work with the federal government to access Indigenous housing funding for Indigenous governments; not the territorial government but Indigenous governments. We need to work with local governments to come up with creative ways to address housing issues. They can be creative and develop housing solutions for their residents with this funding. They have answers, and let's work with them.
We need to work on elder housing so that their homes are enhanced and maintained to allow the elders to age in place. Elders a lot of times do not want to leave their home community, so we need to ensure we give them that opportunity.
For the smaller communities, we need to build fourplexes where elders can be taken care of in the comfort of their own home communities. They are the knowledge keepers. We hear it. They are the ones who hold the history and the culture, and we need to respect them, and we need to build these homes in there, especially for elders who are stage 1 and stage 2 care. Stages 3 to 5, we need medical services, and we do not have that presently for that, so we need to understand that.
We have to be realistic. Our debt is $1.1 billion, and it's getting closer to our debt ceiling of $1.3 billion. This is our reality, so we need to do things differently. I heard from residents who would like to see the Finance Minister reach out to Northerners to hear their concerns and their ideas on how to improve the GNWT economy and how to utilize the budgets as best we can. This will allow us to develop creativity in spending the $1.9 billion. Departments need to do zero-based budgeting to eliminate redundancy and duplication of services in the system. The 19 Members of the Legislative Assembly need to implement a "can-do" approach with the understanding that we are working for the residents of the Northwest Territories. In true consensus government, it's about working together for the betterment of our residents.
Contracts need to be awarded to northern contractors for the economy to grow and flourish in the North. Northern contractors provide employment for Northerners and skills development. These contractors are not only invested in local economy, but in our communities, as many of our contractors are residents themselves. In other words, we need to fix the business incentive program, known as BIP. This program used to be used on all contracts, but somehow it was decided that it would be capped. Colleagues, we see large contracts going south with limited benefit to Northerners. One example was the project on Highway No. 1. The southern company was awarded the contract for roughly $14.5 million, and we did not see very much left behind. We saved a little bit of money on the contract, but what was the impact on the other areas. Again, it's about the residents.
We need to develop infrastructure and the economy in a way that we can support a positive future for our people and our land. We need creative ways to enhance tourism outside of the larger centres. Northerners offer a rich and diverse cultural and traditional perspective and experience, coupled with the incredible untouched landscape that few people have the pleasure of enjoying. Unfortunately, the larger centres are the only places many of our tourists are able to visit because of the undeveloped northern tourism industry.
Moving forward, I would like to see the GNWT develop more green projects, such as geothermal, LNG, solar, and other creative ways to reduce the demand on diesel. It is essentially about working with the communities to come up with a plan that meets their needs as well as using modern technology to enhance existing systems we currently have in place. We have a perfect example in the community of Fort Providence, where SSI Energy has developed a system using modern technology to reduce the use of diesel fuel, utilizing the waste heat for the business. This is an idea that reduces their costs. We need to work with these types of innovators. I believe the utilization of green energy products would enhance the local economy. If you look at geothermal, not only does it operate the power plant, but the heat can be used to heat buildings and greenhouses where we could grow our own food. This creates more employment opportunities and careers, lowers the cost of living in the community, and makes the community more self-reliant.
Last Assembly, we saw an increase in the small community employment fund, which saw new employment opportunities in the smaller communities. However, it is not enough. We need to develop strategic spending which will stimulate employment opportunities, such as homecare, and special projects which are driven by the communities, like work on the access roads and firebreaks, which will help stimulate their economy.
It is about diversifying and improving economic opportunities to encourage community self-reliance and provide local employment through traditional industries, such as arts, culture, small businesses, mining, fisheries, and tourism, as I mentioned before. It's about strategically spending in the region, working with the local governments on projects that will get people to work and be productive citizens. By working on addressing smaller communities, it helps regional centres and it helps the City of Yellowknife. It's the old analogy: you work on your weakest part of it; it makes the whole team better. By doing that, working with the small communities, it does help enhance this.
Colleagues, we need to provide education and training that provides children, youth, and adult learners opportunities for positive contributions to society and meaningful employment.
We need to review and address the education funding formula we are using. It needs to be fixed to ensure all divisional education councils and school staffs have the necessary tools and funding in place to help our students. Divisional boards should not have to look for almost 30 percent of their operational budget outside the department, and this is what's happening in the Deh Cho.
I have to personally thank the staff for doing an amazing job, the divisional staff and teachers, being able to do what they are doing with the resources they have. I have been very fortunate. My children and I have been through this education system. It is an amazing system, but it needs to be fixed in certain areas.
We need to put our students and communities first by offering local skills and trades training that will reduce our needs for importing skilled labourers. We need to promote and stress trades and apprenticeships.
We need to develop a physical literacy strategy for the schools and communities. We need to focus on prevention and people's well-being. We are behind the rest of Canada in this area.
Being respectful of the time, I will try to summarize some of the remaining ideas that I have heard for the past four years and on the campaign trail.
We need to finally address the municipal infrastructure shortfall. We need to start reducing the gap by at least $3.3 million a year for the next four years. This will help municipalities start addressing their concerns. As part of the process, we need to work with the municipalities to develop a capital plan that is realistic and they are aware of O and M costs for these new facilities.
The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs needs to work with the federal government to develop an ability for the smaller communities, especially the designated authorities, to use the CIP and gas tax funding for community projects that they need and maybe a part of the funding to help run the facility and for program staff. We need to explain that every facility being built has an O and M cost and it comes down to that they have limited funds that they receive from the federal government and territorial government. They do not have the ability to raise funds through taxation like some of the bigger centres.
We need to continue to strengthen our human resources capacity across the public service. We need to build up their skills so that they can move up the corporate ladder should they wish. We need Northerners in positions that are looking after Northerners for Northerners, and we need to understand the importance of that.
We need to have a budget line for each department for summer students, and we need to have the ability to share with our municipal governments to give our youth the opportunity to get meaningful employment in the summertime, to help them get positive work experience and funding to go back to school. As well, this would be another way of supporting our youth and our future.
Medical travel policy needs to be reviewed; $18 a day for meals is not right. Tell me where you can get a good meal for $18. You can go to McDonald's, maybe. These are people who are going on medical travel, and we are not looking after them properly.
We also need to look at the time, about the opportunity for people to drive instead of flights. We also have to look at non-medical travel escorts and the work that they do because they are sometimes not family members who are stepping up to look after our sick and the elderly.
Finally, decentralization needs to be looked at. These positions, they are positions that should be in the region, but they are in headquarters. This puts an additional barrier to the government operations and slows down process. There are several examples of this, and I have seen them in the past few years. As well, I believe with modern technology in place, there are positions out there that could be decentralized.
Each community in the Nahendeh does have a list of things we need to work on, but, with everybody's permission here, I would like to be able to submit the list for the Hansard and have it deemed as read. In closing, I would like to thank my former colleagues from the 18th Assembly. Your help, your assistance, and your support was greatly appreciated. I have learned a lot from you. The scary thing is I have gone from being a rookie to a knowledge-keeper in four short years. It is exciting and scary at the same time. Thank you, my colleagues.