Mr. Speaker, I sincerely believe that the future of the Northwest Territories has never looked brighter. There will be opportunities over the next ten years in a number of areas for developments that can benefit the residents of the Northwest Territories. However, we need to act now to ensure that we can take full advantage of these opportunities. We cannot afford to wait.
The Legislative Assembly has set out a vision of a strong, unified and self-reliant Northwest Territories that can take its rightful place in Canada.
We need to make the right decisions over the next few years to ensure that we achieve this vision. We are doing our best to improve social well-being and service levels with existing resources, but we need full access to the revenues from our resources if we are to make significant progress towards addressing our problems. We need to ensure that we continue to maintain a tax and regulatory environment that does not unnecessarily restrict business, without compromising the environment or social programs.
We must work in partnership with the federal and aboriginal governments to ensure that Northerners benefit from the development of our resources and that northern governments have the resources needed to take our place in Canada to provide top quality programs and services to our residents.
Mr. Speaker, it is clear there is a lot to do over the next four years and we, as the 14th Legislative Assembly, have developed a vision of what we want to accomplish. We face many challenges in the North, but there are many opportunities as well. Although we are forecasting a deficit budget for the fiscal year 2000-2001, we are maintaining the levels of services provided to Northerners and investing where we can to provide maximum returns on the future both for our people and our economy. In closing, I would like to re-state my optimism for the future and that I truly believe these are exciting times.
-- Applause