Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, colleagues. I have a two-page speech, and the reason why is last night I walked around my apartment, and I was pacing. I couldn't even watch the Oilers play. And I was wondering what was going on and I couldn't help but think something was missing. And late last night I finally decided I needed to put my name forward as a Minister. So after I decided that in my head, I went to bed and slept a good solid six hours. So I'm standing before you all to put my name in this Cabinet not because of what transpired today, but because of what I felt last night. I feel it was the right experience -- I feel I have the right experience and the knowledge to offer this House and help take us forward in the right direction.
I'm a Metis person born and raised in Hay River. My mother and father both came to the Northwest Territories very young as part of the commercial fishing industry. Both my mother, Delphine Coutoreille, married my father in Hay River, and she had a career of being a mother and also working at one of the local stores. My father spent a couple winters commercial fishing and vowed he'd never do that again. And he took a career with NTCL for 35 years, five of which he actually went to work for Beaudrill up in Tuktoyaktuk for five years. My mother passed away, and my dad is still with us today.
I spent 30 years in emergency services from firefighter to medic to deputy chief to chief to back down -- I've been in every position in there to kind of help out our town and our community. I've seen everything. I've been on the road at 40 below. I've done everything on the fire service and emergency services has to offer. 26 years in the public service, around eight of those as a corrections officer, five, six years of shift supervisor, deputy warden, acted as warden, been in many acting roles. Most recently, I was the director for the investigation standards office which was a position -- a new position to Hay River. I spent 15 years on town council as politics with, you know, a good mayor, good council, and I think as a politician and in our local government, I think I did some good things. At least I hope so.
I'm involved in the community. I've been involved in the community, and I don't think that's ever going to go away. I've seen what a community can do when we all get together and work together. I've been involved in many organizations. You know, I took over the Legion and I ran in and took over the legion because it was at a deficit. It was going to close its doors. It was for sale. And as a community, you don't want to start losing these nonservice -- or these service groups. And that's because if you do, it starts impacting the community. When I stepped in, it was over $300,000 in the hole. To this day, it has many good employees, a good manager. It doesn't owe any money to anybody, and it usually pays its land taxes well in advance. It donates on annual probably almost $90,000 a year to the community. I take pride in that organization because it's something that I committed my life to, to bring back, and now it's running on its own where I don't need to be there.
I know the issues facing our territory. I know the issues facing our government. I feel that I'm a good fit as a Minister to jump in a role where I could be an asset to some of the decisions that have to be made.
I believe we need to fine tune our government. We have a good government. We need to work with what we have and fine tune it.
I will not forget as a Minister, the Regular Members. I will work with the Regular Members. I will work as a team. I'm a team builder. I've always been a team builder. I've done it in everything I've done with the fire departments -- with the fire department, with the Legion. I know less hands make good -- sorry, many hands make less work, and I believe in that philosophy. I believe we can do that here.
I can work with the Indigenous government organizations, the non-profit organizations. I believe I have the strengths to do those.
I also believe in stimulating the economy from within. I think we can do that as a government and keep our local people working and provide work for our local businesses. I know with great leadership and a great team, we can start doing some of the things that everybody's talking about, like closing the funding gap.
We're all passionate about health care. So am I. I did, you know, 20 years working on the ambulance. I've seen firsthand what everybody's got to go through, and I still am passionate about health care. I'd listen to the stories. I've seen what happens firsthand. I know the drug crisis we're going through. And as the thing tends to flow from the south to the North with everything else, I know what's going on in Hay River. I don't want to see that in Norman Wells. I don't want to see that in Tuktoyaktuk.
You know, I want to see a treatment centre. I want to see a trauma-informed treatment centre. I want to see our communities getting taken care of, and I want to see on the land programs in regional centres so that we can start taking care of our people. You know, I want to work with the Aboriginal groups and the government and the Regular Members and everybody else to get the settling the land claims.
Just touching base again just briefly with the emergency services, you know, like I think I have lots to offer into what happened with the wildland fires and the floods and the experiences we've gone through, and I think that knowledge and that expertise would be beneficial to our government going forward. I think together as a government, making our public service accountable to the people in the Northwest Territories, we can do great things.
I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I don't think that's necessary. I think there's many reviews and documents sitting on the shelf with lots of dust on them. I think we can dust those off and start looking to see if they would apply today.
So in closing, like I said I believe I'm a good team builder. I believe I'm a person that likes to work with people. I believe that working together will make things go smoother. And as a Minister, if selected, I look forward to working with everybody, including the Regular MLAs, to bring this government in the right direction. So thank you.