Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't intend to take up 20 minutes, but I feel obligated to make a few comments on the Budget Address. I can think back, Mr. Speaker, better than three years ago when I first came into this Assembly and when we sat down as a group to look at our fiscal situation and where we were, and the importance that we put on our fiscal situation at the time and where we were going and how we could not afford to go deeper into deficit and what would happen if we just continued to spend. I guess, Mr. Speaker, to some extent -- and it's been said before -- that we probably have changed our views on that. I agree with Cabinet that we have to continue to spend and there are many things that we have to do to prepare our people to meet the challenges that are coming forward in the NWT. I, like everybody else, am very hopeful that things will turn out at least in some cases, the way we envisioned them and that the territory will gain a lot of benefits from the resources that we have. I am certainly not comfortable yet that we have reached the point where we have the arrangements with Ottawa that will give us those resources. However, we have to continue to work towards that area. I am sure if we do, we will gain some cooperation with Ottawa to get more of the resources that we so rightfully need and deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I was a little disappointed when the Budget Address came down. As a matter of fact, I was quite disappointed because some of the areas that I am very close to from the part of the Territories where I live and represent, represent some of the renewable resources that we have. A lot of my constituents deal in the fishing industry and I can tell you right now, Mr. Speaker, that the fishing industry is not one that's going to make the NWT a stand-alone territory, but we do have a lot of residents that depend on the fishing industry as a livelihood. We have mentioned many times that the fishing industry is a traditional industry in the Territories and we don't want to see it die. But to not even have it mentioned in the Budget Address, Mr. Speaker, gives me cause for concern.

Agriculture is another area in the South Slave region and we have some people working very diligently trying to promote, trying to make a living. Again, Mr. Speaker, it's not an industry that I see putting the Northwest Territories on the map as a stand-alone territory, but is that a reason to totally ignore it? I don't think so, Mr. Speaker. We can at least give the people who are working in those industries enough recognition to mention them when we make public comments about where our government is going, what we see as important in the NWT, what we want to see our territory become.

I guess if all we are going to depend on is the multi-million dollar corporations to come in here and take our natural resources that we have, non-renewable resources, take what we can from them and then when they are all gone, hopefully we've made enough money to sustain us forever. I think, Mr. Speaker, if we are going to be a profitable territory and one that is going to live on with wealth, we are going to have to develop some of our renewable resources as well. We do have renewable resources. For me, I don't think we are paying enough attention to them, we are not letting them develop. I see people trying to make a go of our renewable resources, make a living, create an industry, create employment for other people in the Territories that are going out of business because our government does not want to do anything with our renewable resources. I know that some of the things that are stopping that are maybe out of our control, but I think we could be doing more to get some cooperation from everybody in the Territories to get some of these industries going.

Mr. Speaker, I look at the community that I come from and I go to other communities around the North and I don't see anywhere in the North that has more activity on the industrial side of things and what a place, when I think about it, to have a trade school; Hay River. Promote the trades and use the trades people who are in town and get a good trades industry going to supply industry in the North with good qualified trades people. There is nothing happening in Hay River for the trades. For some reason, Hay River is not a good place to set up a trade school. I think it's a fantastic place to set up a trade school. I don't know what it would take to get this government interested in doing something like that in that area to set up a trade school in Hay River, but from my perspective and when I look around and talk to businesses in Hay River, everybody thinks it would be a great place for a trades school. I think we could do a lot more promoting the trades and using what we have, the businesses we have established in the Northwest Territories, to promote that.

I am certainly hopeful that the government will come around to do more trades. Every time we talk about trying to promote people in certain areas, we spend so much money setting up programs, hiring more consultants and doing studies, we would have enough money to build a school and get a project going. I think we have the partners out there who are quite willing to work with the government and put resources into it that would help promote that. I think we need it in the Northwest Territories.

We talk about education. Again, we will never do enough for education, I think. We need our people educated, but sometimes we need to put the resources down to where they belong, to the students. I hear it all across the Territories. Every time we put more money into education, it's another position somewhere. Very little of it gets back to the students. I think we can do a lot more in that area. I would like to encourage the department and Cabinet to make sure the programs and extra dollars we are putting out there get to where they are going to produce something, at the grassroots.

I worry about our health care situation. We continually put more money into health care, but we have a situation developing in the Territories trying to retain professionals in the health care field. I don't know where it's going to go or how long we are going to be able to keep up with the increases, not only in the services but in the professions, the doctors. How much can we pay our doctors and still have an effective health care system? I think it's going to be a question that is going to continue to plague us because right now, I don't know if we can keep up with the forced growth issues in health. The $60 million that we got from the federal government for a separate fund is fantastic news, but I don't think it's going to get us out of the woods or anything close to that. By the time we split it up and put it out there, we are going to have to be very diligent in how we spend that money to get the best bang for the dollar. I am hoping we can continue to work with Ottawa to put more emphasis on that and get more dollars.

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to bring out a couple of points in there, especially the ones that deal with our renewable resources. I don't think our government is doing enough in that area and I would like to encourage the government to do more in our non-renewable resource sector. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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