Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seeing as it is budget address day, I would like to discuss some of the issues that were presented in the budget. I am looking forward to criticizing some of the issues there, but today I think it’s kind of a day where we like to see some of the benefits that are there.

We are seeing some revenue growth. It’s good to hear that the economy is recovering a little bit better. Also, I like to see that our government is investing money into prevention, into the infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. I think it’s great for the people of the Northwest Territories.

Obviously, from my community, we are strongly interested in the Midwifery Program. It is great to see that there are dollars going into that initiative and also the biomass initiatives that are out there. We have an opportunity in the community of Hay River in Aurora Pellets looking to develop in the region. We are obviously interested in all the biomass initiatives in the current budget.

For the general public, no new taxes. That’s great news for everybody.

From the community of Hay River, we are also interested in the 18 decentralized positions. I know Hay River is going to receive some of those positions, as well as the 11 new positions in the Sahtu. So it’s great to see some of the positions going out to the regions.

Also, the additional money into tourism, it’s good to see that there’s more money, more initiatives going into tourism. We think that’s a viable option in the South Slave as well.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be critical of some of the things the government does. Can we do things better with our money? Are we investing in the right infrastructure? Is the federal government putting up the proper percentages?

I would just like to pass those comments on to the Minister of Finance and thank their team for all the hard work on the budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.