Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to briefly address an issue that is of fundamental concern to all the people in the Northwest Territories. That is the issue of our exploding birthrate.

As we start this budget process, those that look at the documentation will see that the total percentage of the overall budget that is consumed by the social envelope of health, social services, justice, housing and education, continues to expand. It is very clear, to those who look at the information, that one of the big drivers to those exploding costs, which we anticipate or project as an annual $40 million in terms of extra forced growth, is our exploding birthrate.

Mr. Speaker, we have been consumed with the budget and deficit reduction and we are soon to turn our attention, with equal focus and intensity, to division. However, we cannot forget the obligations we have on the social side. Unless we attempt to start to deal with some of the underlying issues that are driving the cost of this government, we are doomed, in this territory, and the two new territories, to endless rounds of repeated cuts, as we attempt to deal with social costs that we cannot control, with increasingly limited revenues.

Mr. Speaker, this is not just the responsibility of this Assembly. This is the responsibility of every person, every community in the Northwest Territories. No one individual has an answer to this, but it is a situation that cannot be ignored and, maybe by starting to work together to address some of these sensitive but critical issues, we can come up with a way to try to deal with this particular issue. To not do that is folly, and is something that we cannot afford. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause