Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the 12 years I have been here, I have seen a lot of change by way of Legislative Assemblies, Members, more importantly, coming in with great intentions but at the end of the day, after being here for four years or going on four terms, I think that a lot of the issues are pretty similar in regards to how we, as government, deal with the residents of the Northwest Territories. The challenges continue to be out there. I think it is more important that we find ways and unique ways of facing these challenges and not continue to do the same practice over and over and over and that we don’t see any significant change by way of political change, social change and the well-being of the residents of the Northwest Territories.

We have focussed a lot on development in regards to diamond mines and major infrastructure by way of public

hearings for pipelines and whatnot. At the end of the day, the goal of government is to provide programs and services to improve the lives of the residents of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, I came into the 13th Assembly with a very

strong emphasis on healing by way of community healing programs and especially the Tl'oondih Healing Society, the attempts by the Gwich’in to establish a healing program in the Mackenzie Delta to find a way to deal with the social ills that affect all of our communities and our people. But, Mr. Speaker, today we have to evolve to a point where we only have one alcohol and drug program in the Northwest Territories, very little by way of baseline programs and services. Yes, we have improved the capacity of government to provide programs and services such as mental health workers, alcohol and drug workers, social workers, nurses, policing, but yet still, Mr. Speaker, we still have a challenge in this area.

Mr. Speaker, another area that I feel very strongly about is the support of youth and our elders in our communities. We, as political leaders, always make the comment that the youth are our future leaders and we must do what we can to improve the lives of the youth. I think as a young person growing up in the Northwest Territories on how important the support of my community was when I was involved in sport, either cross-country skiing, basketball, soccer, hockey, you name it. For me, that was the stimulant to provide me with the emphasis to realize that living healthy, being active and being an ambassador for your community really made a difference to myself as an individual, but for also my teammates that I had an opportunity to travel with and compete in sport with, but the community made you feel that you were there representing them. I think we are starting to see that coming back to our communities in the Northwest Territories, but it is important that we don’t just look at education as the means of solving our problems or the economics of solving our problems. We have to look at the challenges we face in the Northwest Territories by ensuring that the health and well-being are in place to ensure that our young people are growing up healthy, they are physically active but also they are included in our political systems by way of government services through the community associations that we have and not to have them on the sideline saying we know what is best for you, but bring them into the tent and allow them to take. I am very glad to see in all of the assemblies that I have been at, we have a youth and an elder representative at these assemblies. For me, that is the first step; is bring them to the table, allow them an opportunity to speak and take part and not to be left out in the cold. I think that should be applied elsewhere throughout the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, it is so important that we, as government, have to change the way we develop programs through education and training, but now we see an opportunity to allow other parties to partake in developing our education and program services and not to simply leave it up to government. We have seen First Nations government do a tremendous job by way of the Tlicho Government in regards to the community services board. But again, we have to take advantage of those things that work and put them into other areas of the Northwest Territories that gives us that opportunity and provide those services to all of the people of the Northwest Territories and give more authorities to the band, the community governments, the

education authorities in our communities and, more importantly, our students, to tell us exactly what is working and what is not and be able to improve on that.

I think also, Mr. Speaker, it is very important that we never lose sight of our history. The North has a very unique history by way of the indigenous people that basically welcomed the explorers by way of the miners, the prospectors, the fur traders to the Northwest Territories and also for ourselves to realize that we had a very healthy society before the Government of Canada devolved the responsibility of what we call Rupert’s Land from the Hudson Bay Company back in the early 1800s. I think a lot of our history has devolved around developments. It is either the gold rush of the 1800s or basically the oil boom in 1921 in regards to Norman Wells, the gold development around here in Yellowknife and then later on the Beaufort Sea development in the 1960s and 1970s, and now the diamond exploration going into the 1980s and 1990s. I think there is an era of our history that we have to learn from. So much of these developments have taken place, but yet the wealth has left our territory with very little to show for those developments in the positive legacy that these developments have had and especially right here in Yellowknife in regards to the two mines that are practically right in your boundaries by way of Giant and Con and the environmental liability that they left behind to the taxpayers of Canada and the residents of the Northwest Territories to be responsible for.

Also, Mr. Speaker, I think it is time we look at sustainable development in a different blind by including looking at the holistic approach of development, not simply looking at it by way of jobs or basically opportunities but look at how it is going to fit in regards to ourselves as governments, as people of the Northwest Territories, to be the true benefactors of these developments and not to have it dictated by Ottawa or dictated by an industry that either functions out of Houston, Texas or Antwerp, Belgium, but to ensure that we, as northerners, benefit to its fullest but also ensure that we are able to sustain the North and become truly independent and not divided by way of handouts from Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, one of the most crucial issues I have heard during the election was the housing crisis that we still have in the Northwest Territories, but, more importantly, the decision made by the previous government to consolidate social programs under one envelope in regards to social reforms that took place. I think the biggest impact that we have seen was the effect that it has had on seasonal employees who work part time and depend on social housing as their only means of accommodation. Yet, a lot of these people have never been social clients by way of our income support programs but are being forced to have to go somewhere and request a subsidy which they didn’t have to do before. Yet, Mr. Speaker, a lot of people are struggling to maintain a lifestyle and provide for their families under the existing system that we have where we base a system on gross income and not look at the effects of paying taxes right off your cheques to Revenue Canada and then having to pay your rent on top of it. There is very little take home pay to pay the rest of your bills, food for your family and also support services for your other children such as school supplies and whatnot. That’s something that has to be seriously looked at by this government. I think sometimes we have to admit that we aren’t perfect, we make

mistakes and I would admit here today that we did make a mistake.

Mr. Speaker, also, I would like to state that we have to do a better job by including our communities in the decision-making process that we have. We talk about community empowerment; we talk about allowing communities to make decisions. Again, we have to realize that they are not all going to be successful. They are going to fail, but we also have to be able to have the support mechanism there for them when they do fail, by ensuring they have the capacity, resources and government support to back them up. So when they do make a mistake, we don’t allow them to fumble in trying to sustain a non-tax-based concept where there is no tax base in a lot of our small communities. If you look at property taxes, you are probably looking at a $50,000 or $70,000 in property taxes. A community can’t sustain itself on $50,000 or $70,000.

Also, I would just like to state, Mr. Speaker, that I believe, as a government, we have to do a better job in supporting a cultural industry, our crafts industry and, more importantly, the professionals, experts I should say, that we have out there in our elders. We have very few elders that still remain in a lot of our communities. We have lost a lot of elders, yet we aren’t taking full advantage of the knowledge, the history and the understanding they have. They are the ones who have seen the world evolve the last 70 or 80 years and seeing how the change has affected themselves, their children, their grandchildren and, in some cases, their great-great-grandchildren. We have to find a better way of not penalizing our seniors from providing that information. A lot of times we have great intentions of how to deliver programs and services but don’t realize the financial impact on that individual by receiving per diems or receiving a cheque has an impact on their pension. A lot of them have been affected in such a way that they are reluctant to share the knowledge and information that they have because of that. I think it’s so important that we look at how programs and services affect people by way of great intentions, but realize there are penalties with regard to how we provide these programs and services.

Mr. Speaker, one of the most critical crises we face in the Northwest Territories is climate change. We see it with regard to our community infrastructure; we see it when we travel on the land, on our roads and in the air by what is taking place on the ground. We have shoreline erosion, public infrastructure shifting, our highways buckling and also the effect it’s having on the wildlife, our fish, our birds and, more importantly, our people. People don’t realize it unless you talk to someone who has made a living on the land and who has seen the effects on the substance such as caribou, fish, the birds. They are seeing the differences that are out there. I think right now, we, as northerners, have to take ownership of this responsibility to ensure that we do a better job of looking at the well-being of our environment, our people and our land.

Mr. Speaker, one of the most central challenges that hopefully we can keep our fingers crossed that we can get something out of this government before the next election, one of the areas that will have a detrimental or direct affect on all northerners is rebalancing the northern residential tax deductions that we get and make it worthwhile and that we aren’t penalized for living in the Northwest Territories. If anything, it should give us an incentive to live in the Northwest Territories. By changing

the northern tax credit, we would be able to keep more of our wealth in our pockets than having to see it all go to Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, again, as a Member of this Assembly and the previous Assembly, as I started off my comments with, four years is a short time. Yet we have very little time to waste by way of bickering on issues that will not get us anywhere. Also, we need to realize we can only accomplish so much in the short time frame we are going to be here.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members of this House to work cooperatively, to work for the benefit of our people and make sure we put our focus and energy on things we can really accomplish and make a difference to improve the lives of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause