Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about a constituency meeting I held last week. I had a very good turnout, one of the best ones since the last election. Mr. Speaker, a number of topics came up. People came to tell me of their concerns and they provided some advice. One of the first topics to come up was about our fiscal situation. There was concern expressed about the approaching debt wall and funding from Canada, the royalty revenues from non-renewable resources and devolution.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents recognize that it will take some time to make a deal on devolving the ownership of resources and, therefore, royalties won't flow to the North for some time. They are concerned about what will happen in the interim. They expressed considerable frustration that the federal government has so far not recognized that while our economy is booming, it is contributing to our fiscal problem as we get stuck with infrastructure costs like road repairs and the increased costs to our social programs. They all said we should keep up the pressure on Ottawa, and a couple said that they were going to take occasion to press the issue with our Member of Parliament to ensure that she continues to work on our behalf.
Related to the fiscal issue, Mr. Speaker, is the issue of government restructuring. Government employees are obviously concerned that the recommendations that we are going to be seeing this fall might lead to layoffs. I was able to advise those in attendance that the report would likely be a set of recommendations to the 15th Assembly, so there will be a fair opportunity for discussion. I also told them that in my experience we could not save much money by cutting jobs, so I thought the restructuring recommendations were not likely to result in wide-scale layoffs.
Mr. Speaker, a number of other issues came up, such as the Deh Cho Bridge, the cost of living in the North and the shortage of housing. These are all important issues with my constituents. But, Mr. Speaker, probably the biggest issue since the announcement was made that negotiations with the specialist doctors have broken off, is that of the specialists. All present wanted to see the issue resolved. They felt that specialists played an important role in the quality of healthcare that we enjoy in the North. Most expressed displeasure over the doctors' tactics of submitting the resignation letter, and noted that without any discussion going on the issue is not getting any closer to resolution.
Mr. Speaker, all of them wanted to see the parties back at the table, and soon. They were not impressed by the suggestion that negotiations could resume at the end of June. They do not want to wait or do not want to take a chance of waiting until the last minute. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to complete my statement.