Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this issue has come about and has been brought to this forum to have a bit of debate on it. Mr. Chairman, in principle, I agree with what is being put forward but as well, I would like to state that there are some cautions I think we need to raise here. I refer to a number of instances and examples of situations where smaller communities find themselves at a disadvantage to larger communities. I do not think there is anybody here that will disagree with that, as we see all over the country and other communities that in fact, as your size of your community grows, you seem to gather more momentum in that area. I would just like to caution though, in a sense, that where we are going to go with this and what the expectations might be and what we will find ourselves in. For example, in the 13th Assembly when the government was looking at reductions, it was the larger communities, especially as I was quite concerned on behalf of my community, my constituency, of the amount of reductions that were coming down the line from the government on top of earlier downsizing by other areas and sectors of the economy. That was a very negative thing to have happen.
I think there is a need to ensure that our existing services and programs need to be evaluated to ensure we are meeting the needs of our constituents in the Northwest Territories, whether they be in small or larger communities. I hope that when this work is done, it is with an outcome plan to bring information to light and that we would look realistically at what we can do as a government to impact positively on the lives of the constituents we serve here in the Northwest Territories.
I think that, as well, Mr. Chairman, this is something that has come about in the sense of how some communities are moving ahead versus other communities. I think that can be deceiving at times. For example, Mr. Chairman, in the Beaufort-Delta, we have a fair bit of activity happening now, but at the same time, when we go back three years ago, there was no activity happening in the Beaufort-Delta. In fact, we were worried about the people and the businesses of that area who were continuing to reduce and doors were being closed because of the lack of activity. There has been quite a turn around, but at the same time that turn around again has been driven, as I see it, from the private sector, not necessarily from the Government of the Northwest Territories.
The government has been fortunate, in a sense, that we have had the increased activity and interest in the Northwest Territories again because if that were not the case, we would be continuing to look at a reduction of services provided in all our communities and that is something we do not want to see and hopefully do not have to see.
I still raise my concerns, as we started off this Assembly, as being cautious of what we can do and accomplish as the Government of the Northwest Territories.
As I stated earlier, in an area of this establishment of a Special Committee on Rural Community Affairs, I guess the question is, what would be considered rural in that aspect? I had my concerns, for example, after division happened that Inuvik and the Beaufort-Delta would be overlooked because of the fact that we are quite some distance from the capital and our actual hard line, in a sense, connections, we are talking highways, is to the Yukon. South, our connection to the Northwest Territories is an air route and the Mackenzie River by barge and tug sort of thing and the budget line to this government.
I think that is an area that we had concern with and ensuring that as the new government came forward, we were able to get our message across and have things happen. I must say, from that time period when we were looking at division and the impacts of division, again the private sector has increased significantly and helped our situation out to the point where we are not in fact looking to the Government of the Northwest Territories as much as we were. There are some capital projects that are happening in the community and I must say for the record that those were in the books, for example, the hospital in Inuvik since 1998 when the transfer of health programs were transferred to this government.
Still, there needs to be a balance in what we do as a government and criteria, clear criteria, established as to what would a community qualify for and how they would access funding. For example, I shared concerns in the 13th Assembly, Mr. Chairman, with the concerns of funding levels for tax-based communities versus non-tax-based, initially because in the community we represent, we do not qualify for a lot of the programs that a non-tax-based community would qualify for. I raised that concern a number of times. Again, thankfully, with the activity that helps out. In a larger community, it is not quite as much a concern as it used to be. There have been some changes to the formulas of this government that sort of balance out to a certain degree.
I would like to hear from other Members in this area, Mr. Chairman, as to what we are hoping to accomplish at the end of the day and the time line of a special committee. For example, I could see that a positive discussion taking place, a report being done laid before the House and some discussion as to what as a government we can do, and maybe sort of set some building blocks for future governments, or maybe have some impact in this government. It would be interesting in seeing what the outcome is and what the requirements would be and what impacts it would have on all our constituents. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.