Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be voting for the motion.
---Laughter
I feel strongly I can make that commitment. I think an important factor to emphasize here, although it’s a side of this fundamental issue which is the fact that this $500 million debt wall is an arbitrary number set by an Order-in-Council by the Government of Canada on us. It has no basis or values, in my view, that speak to the fact that is a $500 million debt wall a reasonable debt wall for this government in its ability to pay. You know, it doesn’t speak to the bigger problem. I mean I support the motion, but the problem is this motion, it’s not asking the direct question, which ultimately is the fact of why does the GNWT carry a debt wall, and this motion speaks to ways that we could avoid that problem and that’s why I’ll support that.
I only wish that the federal government would recognize, certainly within our lifetime as a government, although I don’t necessarily see that happening, our debt should be based on the principle of being able to pay versus not pay and debt should be considered a ratio of us being able to make reasonable payments. This motion is a response to finding a way to work around that and if Canada could find it in its heart to maybe explain to
us why we deserve a $500 million debt wall I know it would certainly be appreciated from my point of view because, again, it reflects nothing in my view of our ability to do our job here. That policy makes no sense to me in my mind.
Our government had come out with a fiscal responsibility policy a few years ago and I thought it was a good quality piece of material that the Finance shop came up with and I think it spoke well to the way this government manages debt, yet we continue to be straddled with this problem. This motion speaks to finding a way to work around it, but the sad thing is we never seem to be able to deal with the real problem, which is the federal government continues to control our territorial government, and not only our government, lastly, Mr. Chairman, the Yukon government as well as the Nunavut government. No other province would stand for this and it’s unfortunate. Thank you.