Sitting here today in regard to the budget, I am in support of the budget. I have a lot of comments to make and I’ll start with the federal government on the Building Canada Plan. Being four years earlier, I just want to thank the Conservative government for that in regard to my access road, for getting the extra money that I needed.

The gas and heating fuel in our communities was a good thing in regard to being dropped 16 cents per litre for assistance for people who live on, for hunting and for caribou and stuff like that. So that’s a real good initiative.

Near and dear to my heart is my polar bear issue. I’m working with the Minister of ITI on product diversification and the marketing. Diversification in regard to tourism and stuff is a good thing, but I do still support the polar bear hunt. It’s a $1.7 million hit to my economy in my riding of Nunakput and 85 people affected directly. So many helpers, the airlines, everybody is going to be hit with not having the monies coming in until April. Maybe a guide would take out three or four hunters a year and that’s a big hit to their economy and where they get their money from. I still would like to see our government try to get the United States to take a good look at taking that off the list and talking to Fish and Game on that polar bear issue. It has to be dealt with. It’s affecting too many people in my riding.

Another good initiative is the residual heat project in Ulukhaktok. That would be really good to get that project off the ground and running in regard to the school system and that, the hamlet, the local community government, to try to cut down the cost on the high price of fuel. There are many other people who could use that, like the arena if possible. I think that’s a really good initiative.

Wind turbines in Tuk, that’s going to be really good due to the high cost of power in the community. We are a diesel community and just paying for your power bill every month, it’s gotten higher. You think it’s high up in Yellowknife when you’re 30 percent extra. You’re not paying $800 or $900 a month now in the small communities. It’s a really good thing that we should really support and get that off the ground.

Going through continued support, the extra monies put forward for the pipeline to make sure we stay on

top of it, on the project to make sure it happens. I worry about businesses up and down the valley, especially in the Beaufort-Delta, having no work this winter and half of the community...People are really struggling. We have to stay on top of that.

The overall cost of living is so high in my communities that I represent it’s ridiculous. From travel to power to food, you can’t live. Quality of life is not the same as it should be. People are worrying for little things and not able to go and purchase a new snowmobile every year due to the high costs of living. You make do with what you’ve got or just hope on family and friends to help you.

On projects, the extra funding that’s needed on that initiative right across with the housing, ECE, will make a difference. A couple more things in regard to the job cuts in the budget for my riding, I’ll make sure that I do it justice and I will fight to make sure that gets resolved, because some people say retirement. You could retire on a retirement package down south maybe, but you can’t retire in my riding because you’d go broke in two years with regard to the high cost of living. That’s not an option for me. I’m going to go tooth and nail in regard to the job cuts, if any, in my riding.

Again, the quality of life is not the same, so I’ll really let the government know that we have to do something about this. If it’s not us, we could assist the local community government, the airlines and stuff to see what we can do to help them, the small businesses and the airlines. We’ve been giving out quite a bit of money lately to some airlines. We have a couple of airlines in the Beaufort-Delta that need some money, too, so it would be good to assist.

The extra money that we did get for the housing, the extra $50 million, I think that’s a really good thing. We really do need housing; we’re short in the communities. On just retrofits alone, we could spend that money probably, with the Minister, in a couple of days. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Early Childhood Initiative; I would say that the youth are our future in the Northwest Territories and any support that we can give to the youth and to the families on a go forward basis is always a good thing.

Our elders repair on their Homeownership Program, that’s the extra monies we did get in there that Mr. Beaulieu brought up is another really good initiative we do have coming. Overall, it is a really good budget. I am really happy just seeing a couple of my communities that I represent on one page, so it is pretty good to see.

In the budget it includes over $61 million for NWT community governments increased by 9 percent in

2008-09. I am really happy to see with the increases with the local community governments that they are struggling already. That should be really taken into consideration on the high cost of living, not only for the power and the fuel, but it eats up so much of the budget. Some communities can’t get the arenas opened just due to the high cost of power. It really should be looked at. Any kind of help that we could give our local community governments is always a good thing. I really do stress that it is time to work together to make this budget go through and making sure that everything gets passed along to the communities, and not only the communities but to Yellowknife, Hay River and everybody.

I have one more thing. I have 57 seconds left. I am going to make sure this time that housing gets put back to Housing. We have so many problems with ECE and housing in regards to the small communities. If they are corporations, they should be treated as stand alone. It is the same with the Power Corporation. Right now you have constituents being evicted just because of not showing up on time at the end of the month. A lot of things could be said, but I look forward to working with everybody here to make sure this goes through. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.