Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, along with other Members, I fully support the motion put forth. I certainly am concerned and I have heard growing concerns from many different areas in the Northwest Territories of receiving reduced funding by the federal government. I am particularly concerned with respect to the amount of reduced funding which is having to be absorbed by the friendship centres and the Metis Nation, funded by the Secretary of State. These particular organizations provide fundamental services to many of the aboriginal people in the north. What concerns me, Mr. Speaker, is that, particularly for the Metis Nation, they cannot go to DIAND and ask them for funding that is provided to bands and other organizations.
My constituency has a large number of Metis people and there is no doubt that there will be a ripple effect with respect to the federal funding cuts which are being proposed. This is only one portion of a part of funding cuts with regard to the federal government towards the treatment to the northern people. As I had said last week, and I will say it again this week, when we discussed another motion with respect to funding cuts on the NWT agreement for French and aboriginal languages, at some point in time we are going to have to take a drastic step, I know it has been done in the past, of this Legislature going to Ottawa to indicate the necessity of the amount of funding that people in the north need to do their jobs effectively, particularly, these organizations. I do not believe that the understanding in Ottawa and the sympathy is there for the north, which is very unfortunate.
I think sometimes the attitude is that we have 55,000 people and our $1.2 billion budget should be adequate, not taking into consideration our demographics, our cost for travel and our cost for services to be provided to the people of the Northwest Territories. So, it is with pleasure that I support my colleagues and I commend Mr. Arvaluk and Mr. Koe for bringing forth this motion. We certainly would like to see the federal government be able to assist in delivering programs in the Northwest Territories by not cutting the funding. If you do not have funding, you are very limited now in the monetary society we live in to be able to do anything effectively. Thank you.
---Applause