Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank both the Premier and the Minister of Finance for their brief overview of the Northern Strategy. It does cover a tremendous amount of ground. I know I have 10 minutes here; I am going to try to cover the points that I feel I need to cover and then I will pass it on to some of my colleagues here.
The first thing is that I am still not 100 percent convinced of the Northern Strategy and how the Northwest Territories is going to be seen by the rest of the country as being different than Nunavut or being different than the Yukon. I know that both the Yukon and Nunavut have a lot to offer Canada as well but, in terms of being an economic engine for the country, the Northwest Territories is by far a much better vehicle for that. I know our economy grew 21 percent last year, whereas Nunavut's actually shrank and the Yukon's was stagnant. I see it as being more pan-territorial in nature, rather than specific what it can do for us. That does cause me some concern; and I know that the Premier has talked about it, that the Northwest Territories is going to get it's say, is going to have it's specific needs addressed, but I have yet to really see how that is going to work out or be played out.
What I see is a bunch of lofty goals and objects how we are going to fit our own specific needs into those but, for what it is worth, I am going to try to do some of that. The fact that the federal government has actually figured out that there is life north of 60, after being in power in Ottawa for over 12 years, is something that I am really glad to see. Finally somebody woke them up in Ottawa and they realize that there is life north of 60 and this Northern Strategy, in my mind, is years overdue, it is about time. That is all I have to say and I do look forward to hopefully some good things coming out of it.
In the Premier's opening remarks, he was mentioning the fact that we have to ensure that northerners are primary beneficiaries of development and northern resources. I know that the Premier and Cabinet and the rest of my colleagues here have known for some time that I have been interested in developing a resource trust fund for the residents of the Northwest Territories. I am a believer that the federal government should have some time ago, perhaps even before diamonds were discovered here, maybe even when oil was discovered at Norman Wells, started to put some money aside for the residents who live here. They haven't done that and we are here, we have been talking about devolution and resource revenue sharing for almost 20 years and I really do hope -- and I do put a great deal of faith in the Premier and the Finance Minister -- that this government, after many governments before it, can finally deliver the goods on devolution and resource revenue sharing because it is long overdue.
I know the concept of a trust fund is something that, unless you had money to put into it, you don't have one. So the money that is leaving our territory today, I don't understand why and I know it is a complicated subject, but why couldn't Ottawa just look at putting some of this money aside? Both sides agree that there is an obvious dispute over who gets what and are we getting our fair share, and until such time as that dispute is resolved, I believe that Ottawa should be putting the money aside. Maybe not necessarily to us right away, but put it aside so that when that money starts to build up, we know the type of magnitude that we are talking about.
One of the things, and I know it comes up in the Northern Strategy, that I think needs to have some attention brought to it is the fact that Canada has long sovereignty in the Arctic and in the North and we have to try to find
ways of attracting people here to the Northwest Territories and to the Yukon and Nunavut, as well, but specifically the Northwest Territories. Ways in which we can do that have to be fully explored. I talked the other day about perhaps looking at making interest you pay on your mortgage as a tax credit, some things like that. We have to start thinking about these things and we have to start putting it back.
If the federal government is indeed interested in the Northern Strategy, in trying to develop the Northwest Territories, then I think they should be looking at helping us pay the price by instituting some kind of tax break or a beneficial tax regime. It's already somewhat beneficial to live here, but we have to make every effort to make it as advantageous for people to live here as possible. I think that will certainly go a long way towards giving us more of a population base, more of a workforce. We will hopefully get some type of market housing economy, even in some smaller communities, if we start looking at this; trying to get people into homeownership and thinking about owning their own home, putting down roots in the Northwest Territories. I think those types of things are things that I believe should be in a Northern Strategy.
The federal government has to understand that we are different; has to understand that the cost of living here is phenomenal. If you filled your fuel tank in your home lately you know what that is all about, or put gas in your car, or bought groceries at the store. It is more expensive to live here. We have had a difficult time in trying to attract professionals, especially teachers, doctors, nurses, and we need to look at ways that we can keep people here; get them here, keep them here and keep them happy.
That is something that I would like to see contained in here somewhere, is the federal government to make some kind of effort to give us that ability or to help us pay for tax breaks for people to live here. That just hasn't happened, for whatever reason. Again, I know the Premier and the Finance Minister and the rest of Cabinet have done a great deal of work. Actually, we have come a long way in the short time I've been here. The Premier has done a heck of a lot of work in this regard and I think he is on the right track.
One of the things that does concern me, however, is the recent deal with Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the fact that now some of the other provinces are crying foul about that deal. I wouldn't want to see a potential deal with the Northwest Territories being sidetracked now because some of the other provinces are upset. We are in a different position here, we are different than Ontario, we are different than Saskatchewan and I just hope that we don't get lost in the shuffle in Ottawa again and get pushed to the back of the bus.
I do certainly appreciate all the hard work that the Premier has put in on this and look forward to supporting him on it and moving forward and finally one day getting what we deserve here, and that is devolution and resource revenue sharing. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.
---Applause