Mr. Speaker, all of the departments have participated in suggestions on how we can better use our
money. Plans to bring forward, may be to downsize financially in the departments and how we can spend more of that money in the Northwest Territories. You have heard some of those initiatives announced in the House. Mr. Speaker, my suggestion was to come forward with a payroll tax, which has not met with a lot of warmth, and has not been embraced by this House yet. We have to learn to live within our means, Mr. Speaker. We have to realize that if we want to spend all the money that people want us to spend on them, somebody is going to have to pay. I get the message time and time again from the federal government, that the taxpayer in southern Canada is beginning to look north and say, we are spending $17,000 for every man, woman and child in the Northwest Territories. That seems rather steep for us at 57,000 people.
We have to become more self-reliant. We have to get out there. I know it sounds like small potatoes when we are talking about developing the small fisheries and the arts and craft industry, but every product that we produce in the Northwest Territories and sell on the international market or in southern Canada, is more money back into the Northwest Territories, and that is important to us, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Zoe mentioned today that the Dogrib people are open for business, but they want to be consulted in that mining area. We are saying the same thing. If you want to do business in the Northwest Territories and you do it in the proper manner, the Government of the Northwest Territories will assist you and we are open for business. We are trying to expand our own economy. Unfortunately, we have some problems with our formula funding, which affect us adversely when we put more people to work in the Northwest Territories. That is another issue that has to be worked out to make us better off financially in future years.
Mr. Speaker, the question is, can we bite the bullet next year and balance our budget, get our spending under control and then go forward from there to expand our economy? I think, with the understanding of this House and the hard work from the Cabinet Ministers, we can do that, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to the next session when we will be asking the Members of this House to support our initiatives. Thank you.