Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I’m going to make two sets of comments. The first ones today will just be sort of a brief overview of some of the things. I’d like to offer some long-term views and I’ll offer that at our next chance on Monday, which will be the next sitting date of our House.

For starters, I’m just going to work my way through the budget. I was very pleased with the balanced approach the Minister of Finance has taken on our long-term view. I appreciate his hands at the wheel on this particular file. I know it’s tough being the Finance Minister because everybody wants something. It’s a funny thing to have to be able to have to sometimes say no to people and yes to others and to figure out how do we make sure everybody gets something either in their constituency or which particular organization. When we look at things like the economy and where he notes about our 8 percent drop in 2008 and 17 percent drop. You know, one of the issues I keep raising is a stabilization fund for our revenues. When our corporate taxes or payroll taxes all seem to drop, I mean, it seems to put this government in a tailspin and in a panic trying to figure out how to deal with that.

Now, I know one of the discussions that keeps coming up in the background is this heritage fund, and I certainly welcome the development of that over the long term. But I still think a revenue stabilization fund could be created today with quite simple legislation that gives us the ability to respond to these types of things. We don’t have to go back too far in history when the issue of a corporate tax filer, you know, a prominent business decided that they were going to file somewhere else. And what did that do to this government? Well, the windfall taxes it had received years before all of a sudden now were being recovered. Of course, the strategy over the next number of years at that point was to figure out how are we going to pay that debt back owed to Revenue Canada, or I should say the federal government. Sorry.

Now, in this particular case, the economy had done a quick twist on us that… We’re in a difficult position to be able to prepare and be ready for the throes of how the economy can change so quickly. I mean, we’re quite fortunate to be, in some cases, the ward of the state when it comes to control by Ottawa because our revenues are relatively stabilized. I mean, they provide us, in approximate terms, three-quarters of our funding and we’re

forced to come up with the other quarter. Ultimately, though, it has to do with a lot of creativity and some strategic thinking in order to balance year to year off. Of course, nobody really likes the concept of new taxes except those people who love taxes and certainly love other people paying them, that is. But the reality is that the cost of living here can only continue to handle so much. I mean, that seems to be the number one driving force of why people are leaving the Northwest Territories. It’s always about the economy. It’s always about what does it cost for a jug of milk. It’s always about what does it cost to heat your house. You know, it’s always those types of things. I mean, if we could sell the Northwest Territories just on the basis of opportunity, family relationship, quality of people, I mean, pristine wilderness, I mean, everyone would be marching to the Northwest Territories. But, I mean, even people who are able to find ways to get through the cold and say, well, but it’s the warm hearts that tie us all together and these wonderful relationships. So cold used to be the complaint, but it’s certainly not now. I think most Northerners just treat it as not just a fact of life, it is life here.

What it comes down to is the fact that the economy and the cost of living here continues to be the number one factor that our government is having trouble dealing with. I don’t necessarily expect them to pull out a magic wand and say, you know, well, we’ll make sure we can lower property taxes throughout the Northwest Territories, we’ll lower consumer taxes here, we’ll subsidize heating fuel. I know it’s not as simple as that. But I can tell you that when we do projects such as environmental investment, I mean, a lot of things that are going to help: our carbon emission, it’s going to help our contribution of lowering our GHGs. I think those are fantastic things. I like the way that the Hydro Strategy is going, and I think Northerners support that with full excitement, but a lot of these projects, when you’re cutting down to the nitty-gritty, don’t change the cost of living right now. I mean, I haven’t seen, at least I haven’t seen myself at least, one project where we’ve said that we’ve established a new way of doing business. What we’ve done is we’ve found a new way to make someone else pay and the cost has either been stabilized or has continued to rise. I mean, that keeps going back to our trouble, which is the cost of living. I mean, I think it’s at least the second year in a row, if not longer, that our population continues to decrease, and it doesn’t take a specialized consultant to tell us these types of things. I mean, all you have to do is talk to any industry out there to say why can’t you get more people working here. I mean, they’ll tell you on the street, whether you go to their offices, whether you meet them in the coffee shop, you don’t have to have a specialized announcement for a really great discussion. I mean,

anybody will offer it, whether you’re at the Co-op or Canadian Tire; it’s the cost of living.

Mr. Chairman, other areas of concern that continue to be on the horizon that I’m not sure how we’re going to deal with are highlighted in the budget and it reminds me about the diamond crisis. But the diamond processing, the secondary processing is going to continue to emerge as a problem. In the rest of Canada it is showing itself as they’re trying to be more competitive than the Northwest Territories government can be, whether they can help set them up. I mean, when we’re competing against areas like Quebec who are willing to cover wages, help them with their transfer, I know it’s completely impossible for us to compete against that market. But yet it would be such a sad day for the Northwest Territories for our diamond cutting facilities to move out of the Northwest Territories when it was really here that opened it up to Canada. That’s such a profound thought that the Northwest Territories brought the diamond business to the world through Canada in a new way. I mean, the diamonds certainly surpass any other quality than I’m aware of that are found, mined, cut and produced, but I think that the territorial government still misses the opportunity of the valuation process and I think there’s a bourse process, I can’t remember the exact phrase to that. But, I mean, there are still a lot of developments that I think we need to remind ourselves what’s important. I’ve referred to it a number of times, but Israel doesn’t have diamonds, Antwerp doesn’t have diamonds; diamonds go there. The Northwest Territories is that sleeping giant in this network that why aren’t we taking control of this. I know it would take a significant amount of investment, but I think investors are out there.

Speaking to the issue of investors, I mean, the climate for investment here is very, very difficult. When you talk to the Chamber of Mines and they tell you in quite clear terms that it takes at least a good 10 years to go through a process to open up a new mine. You know, that tells me that our government should make that a priority, not just for them but it’s an economic priority to keep people working. I mean, it’s the same concern as Mrs. Groenewegen had today about how we’re not willing to bend over as far as we can and reasonably for Avalon. I mean, that will put people to work. People working are happy families. Happy families can afford to pay their mortgages, buy their kids the bicycle, put bread, milk, eggs, you know, you name it on those tables. I mean, they can take holidays, they buy cars, they watch TV, they heat their houses. I mean, people working are happy people. I guess it’s all about the strategy of how we wish to draw out and invest in a business in the Northwest Territories.

In my view, the power that’s flowing over the Taltson Hydro is not doing any good to anybody. As

much as I support, and I certainly do support the extension of the power line off the Taltson to the diamond mines, because if we can make them more competitive, that means they will have more people working longer, and that darn right does support our economy. I think those are good things.

Again, back to people being self-sufficient. Working people are relatively happy people. It causes people to know where their focus is. So, Mr. Chairman, my time is running down and I have a lot of other issues that I’d like to discuss, but this go around I’m going to leave it quite short. As I mentioned, I’d like to think of my opening comments to the Minister’s address in two parts and I’ll certainly follow it up on Monday with some long-term concerns and issues that I’d like to see.

If I may leave on certainly a positive note, I think he has done a good job to meet many of our concerns. I know that Minister Miltenberger tries very hard to find wins for everybody in every sector, and there is that effort given there. As far as specifics that I want to leave off that I’m very happy about is the investment of the downtown health clinic. I think that is a clear if not an amazing foundation of a government saying we can do things better and we will do things better. That clinic in downtown Yellowknife will provide all the great services between testing to X-ray, will show efficient use of doctors and administration, and that’s the type of government I really believe in is finding new ways to do business smarter. In these times, that’s what’s expected.

So, Mr. Chairman, as I said, two parts to my statement and I’d like to leave that as the first part. I look forward to my conclusion to the second part on Monday at my next chance. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee.