Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to welcome all Members and staff back into the House for our long operational budget session.
Today I’d like to talk about a commitment that this government has made since 2012, and that’s the tour that our Minister of Finance goes on every year and gets input from residents of the Northwest Territories, entitled the Budget Dialogue. In fact, there are three reports that are written and tabled in the House.
The most current Budget Dialogue was done on October 8, 2014. It lasted about two months. Some concern for me was that in a territory of about 42,000 people, we only had 97 people come out to
these meetings in seven regional centres, and we also had 11 individuals and organizations make submissions. However, we continue to hear concerns from people across the Northwest Territories.
The focus of these budget dialogues were on the GNWT’s fiscal situation, which was expressed in our Premier’s opening remarks sessional statement. We want to talk about top priorities for investment moving forward as well as how can the GNWT better manage our expenditures. As you’ve heard here, and you’ve heard many times, we are spending a lot more money than we are getting in terms of revenues.
Some topics that were discussed and outlined in the Taking Stock Budget Dialogue include program spending, growing our economy, energy was a big one, as well as strategic infrastructure.
I had the opportunity to attend the session in Inuvik, and there was a lot of passion and concern expressed in two areas. One is the slow economy that we’re currently experiencing, but also was on energy-focused initiatives and how can we focus on energy to lower the high cost of living that we currently see in the Northwest Territories.
On the eve of the budget address, Members on this side of the House as well as residents of the Northwest Territories want to in fact see if the government is actually listening to what is being said in these budget dialogues over the last three years. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later, on how it’s being addressed in the operational budget.