I listened to and read the Sessional Statement by the Premier from Wednesday. I have a few comments on it.
I think during the last government there was a lot of effort put into negotiations across the Territory. There was a lot of effort in housing, whether it be the social housing kind or the housing of professionals for market housing. A lot of time was spent on resource development, non-renewable resources and renewable resource development.
I’d like to see our attention shift just slightly, not because all of those things aren’t important, but because this government has to have a vision into the future. If we continue just to spend our billion-some odd dollars and continue on in the way we are continuing on, I think ultimately we will face failing infrastructure and failing programs, and we’ll be suffering the problem of hitting the debt wall.
The way I view this statement and all of the other discussions that we’ve had… The way out of our problems, in my opinion, is to prepare the youth. I find that educating and training our youth, and having youth ready to…. I’m having a little difficulty explaining exactly what I’m trying to say. I guess in layman’s terms, I’m trying to say that if we heal the youth of our Territory, then I think we will heal the entire Territory. The youth is our next generation of people who will be running the Territory. It would be good to have well-educated and healthy youth. In our objectives, our priorities — the priorities of this Assembly — we have to ensure that we have well-educated and healthy people. That’s what we’re trying to achieve. If we focus in on our youth, I feel that will go a long way to solving a lot of issues of dependence on government.
With the way budgets are split up now, I don’t know the exact percentage, but a high percentage of the budget from this Territorial government is being spent on social programs — income support and housing being two that probably should be and can be reduced. A lot of that reduction will occur with training, educating and assisting the youth in preparing for the future so there will not be generations and generations of people in the social envelope, so to speak.
The very important item for me in my riding is the cost of living. A reduction in the cost of living can
address some of the issues the people are facing today. When I go back and talk about educating and training and preparing our youth and making sure that the youth have all the things necessary to be well-educated, healthy people, that is something I think this government is going to do for its own future. But currently we do have a real issue of a high cost of living in some of the communities. My communities are affected by that as well.
I think the government is going in this direction, but a reminder that we have to have programs that work for people, not programs that are hamstrung by policies and procedures and that theoretically look like they would be a nice application to help the people of the North. Then once it comes down to the practical application of the programs, many of the programs become hamstrung by policies and procedures, as I indicated just a minute ago.
Infrastructure is important. Right now there is always the fear that this government will hit the debt wall, so we don't want to approve a whole whack of infrastructure that is going to make us do that. I feel that there should be a realignment of the infrastructure priorities by the government. I looked at the 20-year needs assessment, and it’s important to note it is a needs assessment based on certain criteria and not necessarily what's needed on the ground in the various communities.
It’s an opportunity to re-profile our infrastructure with the priorities of this Assembly in mind, and maybe the priorities of this Assembly used as a filter when we're spending infrastructure dollars and when we’re spending O&M dollars, period. But definitely in the focus on improving infrastructure that we have in the Government of the Northwest Territories, we should use our priorities as a filter.
There is always that looming $500-million debt-wall limit. As earlier indicated by one of my colleagues, maybe something could be done with the federal surplus, to move some of the federal surplus and have the federal government take responsibility for new infrastructure so that it won't be a cost to the G.N.W.T.
I feel that responsible, renewable resource development — whether it be non-renewable or renewable resource development — is something that’s important for the economy and for the economy in the Tu Nedhe riding as well.
In conjunction with that and dealing with all of the youth priorities that I would like to see this government put in place, I think that environmental monitoring and training is an area that would fit well with the youth of my riding in the area of the diamond industry and the uranium industry.
If there is more development in those areas…. I’m not indicating that there would be, but if there is, then it would be important that the youth of my
riding be trained in the environmental monitoring, assessment or review areas so that the people of the Tu Nedhe riding are taking care of their own land, so to speak.
And I guess, finally, I feel that the government needs to look at the issue of keeping all of our elders in the community for as long as possible, with the understanding that there are costs associated with the way the elders are being kept. Once they go to a point where they do need assistance to continue on existing, then that assistance should be provided in their own hometown.