Mr. Speaker, later today, at the appropriate time, I will be tabling the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy Advisory Panel’s “What We Heard” report.
This report summarizes more than 80 engagements with our territory’s residents, private sector, governments and other stakeholders on the opportunities and challenges that they see for the NWT economy.
The advisory panel’s report documents what people had to say, it includes informed observations based on the perspectives and expertise of individual panel members, and it provides 90 recommendations to guide the drafting of the final Economic Opportunities Strategy.
These recommendations support several messages that the advisory panel has heard:
•
People are essential; we cannot advance our
economy without a growing healthy population.
•
Our resources, including our people, are largely
unrealized.
•
Economic opportunities and development must
be considered according to the benefits that will be provided to the NWT and its people; and
•
We must build our economy from the ground up,
using the local entrepreneurs and community-based businesses that provide the sustainability and growth of our community economies.
Mr. Speaker, our government has a vision of a territory in which a strong economy provides jobs and opportunities for our people and their communities. We are developing and implementing
plans and strategies that will make this vision a reality. Our work is interrelated. Initiatives to develop and sustain our grassroots economy, for instance, will be affected by the Mineral Development Strategy. Economic development is integrated with labour development, as it is with the Land Use and Sustainability Framework and our work to address poverty. Investments in managing our land and environment help us use our resources wisely and sustainably, while continuing to protect the health of our land and our people. A thriving economy is made up of healthy, educated people. We need people to own and run businesses and employees to work in them. People need education, training and healthier lifestyles to play a role in the economic life of the territory.
Our government is working hard to finalize a Devolution Agreement that will provide us with the authorities and resources to build our territory’s economic future. When we do, we will need to have strategies in place to guide the critical economic planning and decision-making that we have fought so hard to gain. Effective governance ensures that economic development leads directly to social development and protection of the environment. We can’t have one without the others. As our economy grows, we will be able to make more investments in prevention and early childhood to stop problems before they occur. The GNWT already has substantial social, environmental and economic responsibilities. Devolution will enhance our capacity to manage those responsibilities.
The NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy is one example of this foundational economic planning.
The process to develop this strategy was initiated by Members of this Assembly in 2011 when we took office, with a promise to invest, first and foremost, in partnerships and building solid relationships. Alongside a sustainable Mineral Development Strategy, it was identified specifically in our Caucus priorities. We have said, many times, that it is only by working together that we will be able to realize the full potential of our territory and the kind of future we envision for our people.
Mr. Speaker, the process that we are following to develop our Economic Opportunities Strategy is evidence to this.
The work is being led by the NWT Economic Opportunities Governance Committee, of which the GNWT is a member alongside its partners: the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Aboriginal Business Association, the NWT Association of Communities and Canada’s Northern Economic Development Agency, CanNor.
Government and business have come together, and now, thanks to the work of the advisory panel, our partnered approach has been extended to our territory's many leaders, stakeholders, organizations and residents.
Together, our goal is a strategy that can be a guide for a partnered approach to supporting the growth and development of NWT business and industry over the next decade. It will provide a tool for us as leaders to move forward in the same spirit of partnership and cooperation in which it is being created. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.