Thanks, Mr. Chairman. We spent quite a bit of money and also a great deal of time in the last Assembly to try to come to grips with the real nature of our economic problems. It still puzzles me that with only 58,000 people and with a budget of over $1 billion that we continually still talk about the huge economic problem we have. It should be no great challenge to employ a far greater number of people than we do because we have a very small population. It is tiny.
In the past, and it may be in the nature of the weakness of political systems, each Minister of Economic Development tried to come up with some great scheme, a winner. Economics do not work that way. I was happy to hear some of the comments made, there seems to be a change, instead of trying to come up with some great mammoth scheme that is going to solve all our problems, there is a preparedness to listen to what people really want to do, locally.
Unless you really feel enthusiastic about something, you are really not going to put much work and much money into it. If you have your own dream and you are full of enthusiasm then there is a good chance you will follow through on it. However, if somebody dreams up something in Yellowknife, Ottawa or any other big centre and expects someone to grab it and say, "wonderful, I love your idea" human nature does not seem to work that way. There has to be a far greater receptiveness, if you like, to see what makes sense from the point of view of local people. They are not always right, they may be dreaming, but there is a good chance they will have a good feel for what they want to do, what their capabilities are and the potential for success.
One initiative that has been taken by many people over the last three or four years, and we have not really helped, is setting up some kind of banking system. It was the first recommendation of our committee when we dealt with the economy, we have to try to get people to understand personal economy. Before you can become a very significant part of any economic system, you have to understand the basics of how to handle your own money, what you do with it, and how you use it. For years now we have heard this proposal that we either have a credit corporation or a trust system, but instead of blowing your money on the weekend, you have some place where it is secure. No one can just come up to you and ask for a loan because it is in the bank. It is something you have set aside for some purpose. That is one weakness I see.
There is a great desire and demand to try to do something about banking and we have not responded to it. The federal government has not responded to it either in a way that would at least give us a start to try and get people to understand individual, personal economy. Nothing is going to happen until we get that.
It is all right for local people to say this is what I want to do, but there is a proportion of the small population that we have, who do not have the necessary skills to do the things they want to do. When they get into a project or enterprise, they suddenly realize there is something they do not have. We have pointed this out for some time. If people want to focus on something that makes sense to them locally, it is not just in terms of what is needed and possible, but also in terms of the abilities they have to be able to pull it off. So I see that as being very significant and very important.
When I was growing up, Mr. Chairman, I was a socialist. That is a terrible word to use in North America. Where I lived everyone was a socialist. They believed that the main job of government was to redistribute wealth, get many other people to make it and then share it around among all the poor people and they would be happy. One of the weaknesses I see now, and I see it right throughout our system, especially in the bureaucracy, is that private enterprise is a dirty word. Those are bad people and they are a little bit smelly, if you are trying to make a dollar. I see that as a huge weakness. I have come 180 degrees around from what I was when I was a young man. I still see some very important social goals that every government has to pursue, but one thing which is missing is that we do not present successful entrepreneurs as role models. I see all kinds of pictures of Mr. Koe and Mr. Zoe, who have been successful in the bureaucracy, good at carrying briefcases and negotiating with the federal government on different things, but we do not see people who have dug into the hole and spent countless hours trying to make some money, create some wealth, to employee more people and make more taxpayers. There is nothing dirty about that. It took me about 50 years to figure that out. That is what makes the world turn. These people are a special breed. People who are not really nasty people who just want to make piles and piles of money to blow. They are people who are motivated by the idea that they want to do something. They want to do something they can be proud of because they created it and they can look back and say "Look what I was able to do with my life."
We do not have many of those kinds of people in the Northwest Territories. It is a role model that is missing. I would be prepared to say "Let us create one in every community." Someone who is doing all of this, so that people can see there is a different way of making a living. There are other ways of being successful and contributing. I am not saying that public service is a terrible thing, it is a wonderful thing to do that. If you want to spend your life doing that, it is a marvellous thing. That is not to deny the people who are going to make the difference in the NWT, people who can grab an opportunity, run with it, create some wealth and employ many people so we no longer have the huge dependence on government that we have had for so long. If we can achieve at least the beginnings of that and get an entrepreneurial spirit going, it will be a major achievement.
People often say, "well, come up with something concrete. We are fed up with hearing all of this talk." Why can we not say, "these are the kinds of people we would like to see in greater numbers." How can we find ways of encouraging people to do the things they want to do in a way that would be of benefit, not only to themselves, but also the people in the Northwest Territories. I am tired of people saying life is carrying a briefcase, going to meetings and using the word "negotiate" all the time. It is not their money they are talking about, it belongs to someone else.