Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, okay, no matter where we go, you know, in the NWT, housing is one of the top priorities on people's mind. Every government makes this a priority and then fails to make any real meaningful changes. We need to start thinking about this differently. I am personally tired of southern consultants and endless policy reviews that don't produce change.
We need to take a different approach to policy making. All government departments seems to want is to create one policy for the entire territory in the name of equality and accountability. Forming this type of policy making will never be fair because it doesn't take into consideration how different our 33 communities are. These differences should be celebrated. Like in small NWT communities, it's not the same as it is in larger communities or larger regional centre. One centralized policy is not the answer to our problem but is the problem. We need to change the way we do business that recognizes each community's unique needs.
For example, life in small communities, it's not the same as larger one. For example, in Wekweeti, after 6 o'clock there's no place to buy a pop. In Yellowknife, there's a lot of other establishment that you can go to. That's just one of the few examples. I have friends in the capitals -- in the capital and for some people who come here from the south, they talk about how much their home is worth, their house is worth, and their retirement plans, etcetera. And that is great for them, and I support them in what they want. The majority of people who live in smaller Indigenous communities don't view housing in the same way. We have been living here since the beginning of time. We don't view it the way that others view their house. Housing for us, especially for me, does not have a financial value but is a place where we raise the next generation of people. I live in my late parent's house and God willing, some day my grandson will raise his family there too as well.
Centralized decision making has never worked in the NWT context. Current policy development practices support colonization and need to be changed to incorporate the Indigenous world view. My late auntie, Elizabeth MacKenzie, often spoke about Chief Jimmy Bruneau words. Strong like two people, (no translation) and (no translation) - our way of life. This means that our policies needs to reflect all NWT culture.
The 20th Legislative Assembly needs to develop its policy using a concept like strong like two people. If we want things to be better across the NWT, we need to have different policies and different ways of doing things in different communities that supports the community.
Madam Chair, medical travel. We all received some concerns from residents about medical travel. It is sad that so many people have bad experience with medical travel. Just recently in my Member's statement, we had an elder who travelled to south seeking care because she could not get the help that she need at Stanton, and she was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, she passed on in Edmonton. And GNWT would not fly her home to be with her family because she was not on approved medical travel list.
I get concerns on a regular basis about escorts and people being denied escorts. It makes me sad because I have seen what a better system looks like. When I was a GNWT employee, my husband was on sick leave for three years. We travelled to Edmonton at least five times a year. We were given a hotel room, a rental car, food money, and we could easily change our travel plan as needed. We treat GNWT employees far better than our citizens, especially coming from small communities. It seems like medical travel system for citizens is all based around doing things the cheapest way possible. People who travel under this system get stuck in boarding homes, and they have no choice. The GNWT has to find a better way of providing these services in a way that support people.
Mental health and addictions. Many people have told us we need to bring a treatment centre back to the North, and then we heard it here from our colleagues. Every time this gets discussed, the bureaucrats tell us all the reasons why it failed in the past. For me, it's not about if we should. We have to bring treatment back to the NWT. The big question is how are we going to do it.
To simply bring up some southern base treatment facility and drop it in the NWT would not work well. We cannot just rely on the western medical treatment model but incorporate our own culture in order to make this work.
Madam Chair, I myself went to southern treatment, but my road to recovery was much more than just a facility or a 30-day program. That was just the beginning. I had to really work on myself and get support in a lot of different ways. I also had the support of my family, my friends, my elders, and the community. I would like to see some type of treatment facility or wellness centre in every region in the NWT. As part of it, we also need strong on the land programs that incorporate our language, culture, and way of life, strong supports and aftercare for people that go to treatment. Also opportunities for those on the road to recovery, like stable housing, education, and employment opportunities. Today when people return to their communities after treatment program, there are little supports in place for them. Many are still homeless and have lack of supports. On day one, many relapse.
Infrastructure. This is a big priority for everyone. We need to rethink how we do capital planning. We need to work more closely with community leadership like mayors, municipal governments, Indigenous governments, to make sure we are investing our money in the right places. We also need to focus on things like roads that will reduce the cost of living and support economic opportunities. In my region, we have not seen much investment in infrastructure. Some of our infrastructure, like water pipes, were put in place before GNWT was established. And our school is over 50 years old. Over the last two years, we have begun working on the plans to replace the school that will be coming before the 20th Legislative Assembly for approval. This is not just the only school. There are other schools in small communities with a lot of issues that needs attention as well.
Cost of living. All of us here are concerned about the cost of living. Many residents are struggling to provide the basic. We need to approach this issue in a variety of ways. For example, jobs. Bring good paying jobs to the NWT through strategic investment in infrastructure. Infrastructure, we need to invest in projects that will reduce the cost of living. What we need to do is settle collective agreement. There are other 6,000 GNWT employees that have not received an inflationary wage adjustment for years. Since the GNWT is the largest employer, settling the collective agreement should create a strong stable workforce and provide an economic boost to the NWT.
Tax. We need to revisit the carbon tax. This tax has an impact on smaller communities as we often -- many depend on diesel power for generations -- power generations, and people travel greater distance on winter road using more gas to get goods and services.
Another thing that what we need to do is review government programs, like income support, to ensure they are adjusted accordingly. Thank you.