Thank you. It's an honour to be back in this House, to serve the people of Hay River and the NWT for a second term. I want to congratulate and welcome all the returning Members and new Members. I've had a chance to speak with most of the new Members, and even though winter is approaching, the sense of renewal in the air makes this feel like a spring Assembly.

Each of the past two elections have brought significant change, and I feel like we are now in a position to begin delivering the change that the voters want to see. It won't be easy. The NWT is facing many challenges. With the collapse of the oil and gas markets, the impending closure of the diamond mines, and a decade-long decline in mining exploration, the overall economic outlook of the NWT is poor, to say the least. While Yellowknife still seems to be somewhat insulated from the current economic downturn, the hard economic times are already being felt in every other region. On top of that, our residents suffer the negative impacts of addiction, family violence, poverty, lack of education, and a variety of other social factors at rates much higher than the rest of Canada.

However, I am optimistic that, if we face the challenges head on and commit to real change, we can overcome these issues and create a foundation that will allow our residents, and the generations to come, to grow and prosper.

Each region faces its own unique challenges that need to be addressed. In Hay River, we're facing a number of ongoing issues that have been ongoing for a number of years and negatively affect our health and safety, our children's education, and economic viability.

I've heard more concerns about our healthcare system than anything else during my four years as an MLA. Despite being able to attract nurses and physicians, the Hay River Health Authority is unable to retain them, resulting in a revolving door of locums and a seemingly constant staff shortage. This negatively affects patient care, and many people are terrified of getting seriously ill in Hay River. It's not that the staffs don't want to live in Hay River; a number of them have commented that they love the town and want to stay, but they just can't work at the Authority.

This is simply unacceptable. Our facilities should not be driving staff away. The concerns are growing because not only does Hay River have the fastest growing population of seniors in the territory, we're also slated to get a new 48-bed long-term care unit. I want to say that this issue needs to be dealt with by this Assembly before it reaches a crisis point, but some believe that we're already there.

The sudden closure of the Hay River high-rise has also highlighted Hay River's housing shortage; and not just social housing, but all types of rental units. The media always talks about the high cost of rent in Yellowknife, but we face the same costs and the loss of the high-rise's 122 units has made it next to impossible to find a place to rent in Hay River, whether you're a doctor or a low-income individual collecting income assistance.

A number of people who had put down roots in Hay River have already been forced to leave the territory and a number of low-income and vulnerable individuals are now living on the street or in unsafe conditions. As we all know, housing shortages exacerbate all other problems. It makes it nearly impossible to attract new residents, which prevents businesses from being able to grow and can prevent vacant positions, such as those at the health centre, from being filled.

What is most frustrating about this shortage is that there is a plan to alleviate it, and that plan has been waiting in the wings for quite some time. The problem is that the GNWT has been short-changing Hay River by millions of dollars per year in infrastructure funds, as determined by the GNWT's own funding formula. As a result, the town doesn't have the financial means to put in the road, water, and sewer infrastructure that is needed before new lots can be developed.

This municipal funding shortfall needs to be addressed in a significant way in this Assembly. A commitment to do so was made in the last Assembly, but we failed to deliver. In the meantime, the GNWT needs to step up and work with the town to make this development happen. With the potential for Pine Point Mines, Aurora Pellets, a 48- bed long-term care facility, and a new fish processing plant, Hay River's economy and population are actually poised to grow; it's one of the few places in the NWT that can say that. If just 200 people move to Hay River as a result of this growth, which is far less than predicted, the GNWT would receive another $6.5 million dollars a year in federal transfer payments. However, instead of facilitating this, the GNWT has been ignoring these opportunities to the detriment of Hay River, the NWT, and the government itself.

Another issue that has been discussed in this assembly by a number of previous MLAs from Hay River, but has yet to be addressed, is dredging. Hay River came into existence because of its strategic location on the Great Slave Lake. Having a safe port that can be traversed by vessel of all sizes is essential for the safety of our residents, and it's essential for our economy. The build-up of silt is getting to the point where many people believe it threatens the viability of the shipping and fishing industries. There is also concern that, at some point, the state of the port could also cause the Coast Guard to relocate operations to Yellowknife. Given the centralization that we've seen over the years, this doesn't seem unlikely. We can't allow this problem to reach a crisis point; we have to stop being so reactive and start looking beyond this fiscal year.

I noted that Hay River has some real economic potential. Unfortunately, that's looking years into the future, and right now we're facing difficult economic times, like most other places in the territory.

This Assembly needs to do more to promote economic diversification and keep money in the North. One of the easiest ways to do this is to make sure we spend as much of our own public funds as we can within the territory. Each year, the GNWT spends hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure, but efforts to make sure that that money goes to northern firms who employ northern residents have all but disappeared. This is low-hanging fruit. This isn't money we need to attract to the North; we just have to make sure we don't send it south. If we want to pay people to work and help them get training, instead of subsidizing their housing and providing income assistance, then we need to ensure that we keep funds in the territory.

There are a number of ways we can do this. For example, we can break larger contracts into smaller ones so that northern companies can compete with southern firms, and we can make better use of negotiated contracts, which have proven very successful at providing local employment and training. We also need to begin to ensure that these large P3 mega projects start delivering more employment and training benefits to Northerners, instead of just paying lip service to that idea. If we can do it with small negotiated contracts, we can do it with P3s.

If Members wish to learn more about how we can derive greater benefits from the GNWT's procurement process, I recommend that you look up the report on government procurement done by the 18^th Assembly's Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment.

There was a lot of talk about economic diversification in the last Assembly. Unfortunately, despite numerous strategies and action plans, I saw very little action and I see very little in terms of results. Costs for small businesses remain high and, along with red tape, they are increasing. The government needs to understand its role when it comes to the economy. Instead of creating plans that tell entrepreneurs what to do, we need to create partnerships with industries and small businesses, actually listen to them, and work with them to implement solutions that will yield results.

Also, the government needs to step back from its incursion into parts of the private sector. In and around Hay River, the GNWT now does things such as manufacturing, general contracting, and highway maintenance; all things that have traditionally been the domain of the private sector. It's bad enough that northern companies have to deal with high costs and with southern firms who undercut them; they shouldn't have to worry about the GNWT taking work away from them.

While I strongly believe that diversification is important, I don't discount the importance or potential of mining and oil and gas, and we must continue to promote and pursue investment in these areas. However, we can no longer ignore the criticisms of industry. We must streamline our regulatory environment so that the laws governing non-renewable resource activity are clear and expectations and timelines are reasonable for all parties, while at the same time maintaining the stringent environmental protections that are built into our legislation, because resource development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive.

While we do this, we need to keep in mind that the GNWT does not have sole authority over the land. We must ensure that, as we move forward with legislative development, Indigenous governments are included. Again, I recommend to the new Members that they look up the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment's report on the development of devolution legislation and carefully consider those recommendations.

In order to help facilitate some of this resource development, we need the infrastructure to make it a reality, and I join many of my colleagues today in calling for the completion of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The highway would bring economic opportunities to communities up and down the valley, expand tourism, attract billions in investment, and drastically change the fortunes of the territory.

I would also like this Assembly to consider taking a new approach to economic development in small communities. As my colleagues are aware, many small communities don't have the same opportunities to develop local economies that we have in larger centres. I believe that we need to start partnering with local and Indigenous governments with the goal of developing local industries that are sustainable. Fort MacPherson Tent and Canvas is a perfect example. It's the largest private employer in the community and manufactures a product that is desirable around the world. A similar model could be used in communities to set up industries that capitalize on their natural advantages, or a completely new approach can be developed. Regardless, we have to try something different because the current approach is failing.

One of my former colleagues who represented a number of small communities would often talk at length about how a single job in a community could have a large impact that spread beyond a single individual. For example, he would note that sometimes the reason a child wouldn't go to school is because the parents didn't have a job to go to so they wouldn't get up in the morning to take their kid to school. However, even if we create a job in the community, that child's parents could be dealing with addictions issues that prevent them from holding that job. This exemplifies one of the biggest challenges we face. All the issues that we are facing are interrelated, and there is no one way to fix a problem without addressing all of the other issues that feed into it. That's why, when we look at things like building economies or improving the education system, we have to take a more holistic approach than we've done in the past. We can no longer allow government departments to operate in silos, and we need to build strong partnerships with local governments. The old way of doing business has proven not to be effective, and I hope this Assembly supports a real change to the status quo approach that we've seen in the past.

I mentioned education, and I truly believe that education is the most powerful tool we have to change the fortunes of the territory and the best way to insulate ourselves against the boom and bust of mining and oil and gas and to reduce our dependence on government. We need to make a concerted effort to provide better education so that future generations will fare better than us.

There's a lot of concern about the diamond mines closing, but we've had them for decades and we're still facing an uneven distribution of wealth and a number of social problems, so clearly mines alone are not the solution. I personally believe that education is freedom. If you have a university degree, or are a journeyman, you probably don't need social housing or a lot of other social services. So not only is the government not spending money on you, you're probably contributing to the economy, which means there's more money to provide better social services to other people who need them. I strongly believe that what we need is a concerted government-wide effort to provide an education to our youth that will provide them with that freedom. That means developing and implementing an education strategy from the ground up and with grassroots input, buy in, and support, that focuses on everything from prenatal care through early childhood, JK to grade 12, post-secondary, and even on-the-job training. There has to be that continuum from before a child is born until after they get a job. The top-down approach that we're used to seeing has not been working in the territory.

I've mentioned partnerships a number of times, and that speaks to the uniqueness of our territory. While we have a territory-wide public government, for now, we also have a number of Indigenous governments who, over the coming years, will be drawing down authority over a number of the services that are currently provided by the GNWT. This means that we need to develop programs in conjunction with those governments who will be equal partners in delivering them.

I will also add to the chorus of voices that we've heard today calling on this Assembly to settle all outstanding land claims. We need to get this done, and nothing should be off the table in terms of how we can achieve this. This is a necessity. We must do it.

While I could go on about a number of other issues that we must deal with, and that we will deal with during this Assembly, I will end with a comment on government accountability. This has been a heated topic of discussion among the general public over the past few months, and it's come up in nearly all my conversations with the new Members over the past week. It's clear that the status quo is unacceptable. I believe in consensus government, and I also believe in learning from our mistakes. We owe it to the public to make changes that attempt to address the deficiencies with accountability that we experienced in the last Assembly. What do those changes look like? I'm not sure, but it's a conversation that we need to have.

With all of that said, and with one minute remaining on the clock, I just want to say that I look forward to working with all of the new Members and with the returning members for the benefit of the people of the territory, and I really am excited and I'm optimistic. I have a good feeling that we're going to do great things. Thank you.