Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for this opportunity just to provide a few general comments. Madam Chair, I find it very difficult when we see this in our budget. It was read into the record

yesterday, and I welcome that by the Finance Minister and I think he's leading us in certainly a strong direction so, overall, all our citizens can have benefits. But it wasn't that long ago, in October, that we had read some strong motions from this side of the House into the official record. I find we're sort of missing those types of actions that this side of the House has led with. Over 50 percent of the Northwest Territories is represented on this side of the House. At that time it was 10 Members who voted in favour of things like benefits on our northern resources. I think actually that got unanimous consent, to be honest, from the House; that would be all Members.

Affordable housing and access to housing was a big issue from this side of the House again. This side of the House represents more than 50 percent of the constituents in the Northwest Territories as a whole. Establishment of treatment centres, addiction and treatment centres; there was a strong motion about putting one in Inuvik and in Yellowknife and how we treat those issues.

So I'm concerned that this budget did not hear this side of the House. We can go line by line, as we will next week, and we can talk about each specific department under each social envelope, whether it's GED or Social Programs. I think the government understands that there are problems out there, but it seems like when membership tries to bring forward issues that the community people are saying -- and that goes from both Yellowknife to Inuvik all the way to Smith to Simpson all the way up to Colville Lake -- the people are saying they want these things. If you have practically 60 percent or 65 percent of the people in the Northwest Territories saying we want these things, why is this government not listening? I don't know. It's as simple as saying these motions passed; 50 percent plus passed these motions and I find it very difficult to say, well, this is a great budget, this is a great speech, without identifying some basic needs.

This side of the House didn't come up with a wish list of 1,000 things. In the last few months we said principally we have three or four issues that were significant to our residents of the whole Northwest Territories: again, treatment centres, accessible housing and benefits to northern resources. It's a simple message. How is the other side addressing those requests by Members on this side of the House? I think we're falling short on those issues. I think we've heard that we're missing out on training, and all of a sudden there's a change of gears to put more money into training. I think that's a significant step to aid our people in the Northwest Territories. But I'm still concerned because we talk about pre-construction of the Mackenzie gas pipeline, but I'm afraid that our territory's residents are going to miss the bandwagon. So unless you're in one of those special high profile, already rich businesses who can sort of turn on a dime to be able to be prepared to negotiate or apply for contracts or whatnot, I think the general membership of our Northwest Territories people are going to miss that opportunity.

That goes back to the motion of benefits to the Northwest Territories. Where is our government standing here? It emphasizes areas of the Northern Strategy, but we need our Territories to dig in and say no more. There was discussion in the back room just today about what one pipeline, one group getting their way with our resources. There's nothing we can do to stop this pipeline if the National Energy Board says it goes forward. So our government needs to dig in and say we need to take control.

I'm pleased to see our taxes are at a safe level, at least a consistent level. I'm waiting for the day to hear from the Finance Minister -- although it's not said here -- to say when we change corporate tax from 12 percent to 14 percent if we've had any significant adjustment, whether anyone has refiled somewhere or not. So I'm looking forward to those discussions, but I think under our northern strategic plan on how we deal with Canada, something needs to be done. This document does speak a lot about some of our needs up here. I think it doesn't identify who we truly are. I read into the record earlier today about the difference between us and Canada; 46.2 percent of growth versus the 12 percent from the 1999 to 2003 period. What more do we need to wake up the big lion of Canada and say hey, we're an engine here, we've got resources, we want to contribute, we want to be a full partner? I'm not seeing that here. I'm seeing soft statements that we're afraid to offend the federal government. I'd almost have to say we need a lesson from Danny Williams about how to stand up tall and strong and look that Prime Minister in the eye and say damn it, we're in charge of our own area, because these resources are just going to keep flowing along and the National Energy Board is in charge of that pipeline and, at the end of the day, they're going to make the ultimate decision.

So I'm not sure; I'm satisfied for moving forward, but I am very dissatisfied because I go back to what I started off by saying, the natural resource motion has been ignored. Addictions treatment centre has been ignored, and affordable housing barely scratched the surface. It's not being addressed. All the Members on this side of the House, our communities need to be treated fairly.

So as far as anything else goes at this time, I don't have a significant question. I have concerns with the lack of investment for our Expo plan that's in here. I do have some concerns on how we're going to deal with hydro in the future and whose authority we really have over this hydro potential. Who has the authority over the rivers? What consultation efforts have we done thus far?

I'm very pleased to see -- I stress, very pleased to see -- that we're going to create a centre of excellence with the Department of MACA to work with the communities so they can help levy infrastructure money and move forward. They are a good department listening to those particular issues, because the small communities, including places like the city of Yellowknife, do not have the resources to get out there and beat those bushes. So MACA is taking a lead to help them. I'm glad to see that there isn't any significant clawback, but I guess, at the end of the day, what are we doing?

So housing...I mean, you guys have to pull up your socks and I can see that this session is going to be a tough one for lack of policy for dealing with disabled people. We need a policy to make sure folks are treated fairly. I'm going to tell a horrible story next week about somebody who is disabled who has run into problems and we're going to have to start dealing with these things. So housing, I certainly think, is not being addressed and we're going to be challenging that.

So at this time no significant question; just a little griping, one could say, at this time. I'm generally pleased in some

cases, and some less pleased. I'll leave it at that, Madam Chair.