Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to make comments on the budget address. On page 11 of the budget, titled Looking Ahead, when we look at the first paragraph on page 11, it paints a bleak picture of what possibly could happen in the Northwest Territories. Our revenue growth is basically going to be flat to 2019-2020. This is what’s coming up for the new Legislative Assembly next year.
Our revenue coming in will not increase very much, but our expenditures, as Mr. Bouchard talked about, are increasing. We want more. Communities are asking for more. Our needs are being challenged by the less revenue that we have coming in.
The way I look at it, something has got to give. We can’t sustain this way of doing business and operating our territory. More and more is being asked of the Assembly, being asked of the MLAs. We’re a territory. That’s $1.2 billion of the $1.8 billion, as stated, comes from the federal government. Our dependency on the federal government is great and we’re just raising $425 million from our own-source revenues.
I’m glad that there are no new taxes coming in, but when you look at it, certainly as the Minister said, we are being pushed to the edge of a cliff, but who is pushing us? We don’t want to operate on our toes going forward.
I think it’s going to take a whole new mindset and attitude going forward on how do we maintain what we have now, sustain that and look at everything. Nothing is safe anymore in the operation of this territorial government. Thank you.