Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to commend the government on this – yet another – budget address here today for the fiscal year 2014-2015.

We have many challenges in the Northwest Territories and we also have many opportunities, so it becomes the task of this government and our Finance Minister to balance all of those interests and try to do the best we can to manage our territory.

I think of a few things that are mentioned in here today. I think the initiative to try to increase the population of the Northwest Territories with a set target and a set goal within a certain time frame is a very good idea. We can talk about infrastructure deficit and all the things that we need to build, but let me tell you that if we do not have children in our schools, if we do not have people living in our communities, there is going to be little need for more infrastructure. So, it becomes a catch-22 sometimes. Does more infrastructure attract more people, or what comes first, the people or the infrastructure?

We have a difficult and challenging course ahead of us. As I said yesterday, there’s a hole in the bucket; it’s the people that are leaving the Northwest Territories. Like I said, I will have numerous statements throughout this sitting of the Legislature on how – I want to phrase it, I want to coin it in this way – not what is the government doing wrong, how can we do it better.

Of course, we do employ our students and our local people. You talk to some people in industry, they will tell you that every able-bodied, sober, sound-minded person in the Northwest Territories is working at this time. I disagree with that. I think there is lots of room in our public service for people who want to advance, who want to enhance their training and who want to get into private sector employment and who want to get into public sector

employment. There are lots of people out there and I think that we can do better as a government. That’s going to be my motto as we look at all of these things over the next six weeks. What can we as a government do better? What do we have the resources to do and how can we affect change in areas where we can improve circumstances?

Speaking overall and generally, again I would just like to commend the government for this balanced approach to our fiscal forecast for the upcoming year and I look forward to working with them on the initiatives laid out. Thank you.