Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to make a few comments here in terms of the budget. I certainly had some questions about the budget in terms of the location that I represent in the Sahtu region with the isolated small communities. I hope that in the future that the government will look at regional economic stimulus for the small communities; again, the communities that don’t have access to all-weather roads and their limited time of work in the community.
As noted before, Mr. Speaker, some of these communities, whatever projects they have in the communities for that period or month, that’s the economic stimulus package for the communities. Sometimes they would have to go six to eight months without any type of work. I would ask the government in terms of going forward and planning out their projects that these communities that do not have the type of activities where there is all-season roads, that they can take advantage of these jobs outside their region, they can look at their plan in terms of how can they keep the steel to the ground in the first eight to nine months in terms of working in the small communities on their projects.
Again, because of the...I see some of the disadvantages of being in these small communities, projects are only dealt on a very short and limited basis and we sometimes we miss out on some of the bigger projects. However, I would ask the government in going forward on their budgets if they would keep in mind things that would make a difference in people’s lives. When you look at the situation today after March 31st , our roads will be
closed down and there will be hardly any activity going on into the communities.
I would also ask the government if they could be in a position to step it up. I think we have to have some serious discussions regarding this budget here and our federal counterparts in Ottawa. I’m looking at a time when we can cut the building accord with the federal government and, once and for all, have a budget that the Northwest Territories can be proud of. Mr. Speaker, there’s millions and billions of dollars going to leave the Northwest Territories, yet we still have to deal with a $1.2 billion budget for all the Northwest Territories. So I look to a day where this government with this
leadership here can take some giant steps to be an equal partner in the Confederation of Canada in terms of our budget.
I, too, wanted to make those comments to show that we have worked on this budget, but I look forward to a budget that more reflects the real needs in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.