Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to speak on the question of the have and have not communities in the Northwest Territories. In the prayer that is usually read in this House, we talk about how we represent and serve the people of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I have been here for four years. In those four years, I have fought hard and vigorously to ensure that the communities, in a small way, would be served by this government through programs, services and economic opportunities such as contributions to highway maintenance grants. We have tried to ensure that there are economic opportunities for the unemployed in our communities. We have tried to ensure and the situation for the people that are unemployed and on income support and other means of dependency on this government will be changed.
Mr. Speaker, I have not seen that in the former budget that has been put forth by this government. All I see are increases at the headquarters level and increases in the government itself. Mr. Speaker, I would like to know when this government will reinstate the cuts that were made to the small communities.
Mr. Speaker, I feel awfully annoyed when I see the increases at the senior level of government, yet, we talk about setting an agenda to be fair to everyone. I have seen the fairness that has taken place in the last four years, which was the majority of cuts to the small communities so that we have limited resources to take care of the problems that we have. We have a major problem in the delivery of health care and education services in our small communities. But yet, Mr. Speaker, the funds that keep flowing from this government seem to all be at the central level.
I will continue to fight hard for the small communities. I have grown up in a small community and I have seen what the day to day impacts are on people. Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of people in this House who did not have that experience. I think it is time that people took the blinders off and looked outside the boundaries of Yellowknife to see the impacts of these cuts on our small communities. At the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Premier a question on this matter, ensuring fairness in this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.