Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some comments regarding our budget for this year and most likely our last, generally the budget presents itself as being very balanced in terms of ensuring our expenditures do not exceed our revenues. That has always been the basic approach and tenet of any good organization that tries to deliver service to its citizens or its constituents. This government has done a fair job over the last few years, at least from being an MLA during that time.
The riding that I represent is the Deh Cho riding. We are in the southern part of the NWT and we enjoy the conveniences of being on the highway. We also see a greater influx of tourism coming up. If people choose to travel with their families by vehicle, we are the first communities that people see. At the same time, if there is anything that is fairly universal in terms of how the constituents in the Deh Cho riding look upon the needs and expectations of this government, it is in the areas of jobs and businesses and how it is that this government could try to position itself to try to invigorate business opportunities and enhance jobs at the local level. It’s been something that I have been consistently hearing throughout the communities. At the same time, there are still some basic needs that communities want to see more of and that’s in terms of programs and services.
For the past three years, I’ve seen at least the Minister and his department come up with a budget. It’s always, I think, a great challenge to try to deal with the complexity of what we’re faced with in terms of how we live up here in the North and have very high social needs. We have our social sector in terms of our programs and services for health and social services as one of the biggest areas that we have for programs and service delivery from this government. So that coupled with a small corporate sector that does business in the NWT and, of course, obviously our tax base is fairly small. So we’re quite heavily dependent on federal funding and that’s always been a challenge. But from what I’ve seen for the past three years, it’s been a remarkable feat for us to try to deliver and meet the needs of our people up here in the NWT. I think that’s been quite commendable, at least in my eyes.
There’s always a push, from my perspective, to try and encourage this government to settle a land claim. If you settle a land claim, especially in the Deh Cho and to come up with a self-government agreement, it’s going to add to the certainty of the entire North. The Akaitcho Government is still negotiating their land claim too. I always try to be a
bystander. I’ve been involved with that process before. I’d like to see the timely conclusion of an agreement at some point. I was really hoping that we would come up with the bilateral agreement with the Dehcho First Nations and this government by the end of the 17th Assembly and we still have
some time. I really am optimistic and hopeful that this leadership or this government will do that and enable the variables to take place and let it happen.
I’m a bit concerned that the government that we’re trying to operate on behalf of our citizens is becoming more centralized in a way that most of the workers and government services are held in Yellowknife and the regional centres. I‘ve heard the term very loosely of decentralization thrown around conveniently for some time, but I haven’t really seen anything in terms of direct benefits for small communities. I understand that there are perhaps some logistical challenges in terms of having available housing, adequate services to try to attract people to live out in the communities, but I think more could be done in terms of trying to decentralize some positions out in the communities. That’s not to say that this government has made some very commendable achievements. One primary achievement has been the government services offices that have been established in a majority of the communities in the NWT.
Some other general comments in terms of some of the initiatives that this government is undertaking like the Economic Development Strategy that I look forward to seeing in terms of having this government unveil how it is that it wants to invigorate the economy. It’s always interesting to watch and see how those major initiatives and strategies will be unveiled and implemented, but also at the same time how it is that we’re going to monitor and ensure that there’s a level of control in ensuring that they are successfully implemented and made to work at the community level and for the entire North.
One area that I think I’m fairly passionate about is our territorial parks. In my riding we have, as I said, some very prized territorial parks that people have come across. In fact, I think last summer one of our parks in the South Slave in the Enterprise area was recognized as being one of the top 10 parks that people would visit. So I think this government has to make better efforts in trying to enhance our parks, work with the employees that are working there if they’re contract employees. These people, the front-line workers, tourists, when they travel up north, they engage with people and those are the people that ITI or this government puts in place. We put our trust in them, and at the same time, we put our confidence in them that they’re going to create a good service for tourists that travel up here in the NWT. At the same time, they are given the resources to deliver a good service so that people can come back up here to the North. Similarly to
that matter, I look forward to perhaps more initiatives in trying to enhance tourism so that we also tap into the fishing market in terms of developing guides.
Specifically, some other hopeful optimism that I have on behalf of my constituents is looking at the funding systems that are in place in terms of the investments that we put into the communities and the businesses, especially the service sector. We have hotels, we have restaurants and perhaps lodges where we need to ensure that we market them well so that people know that they exist out there and they use them and that we work with those businesses so that we help them along as well.
Some other general comments in terms of the constituents that I represent, their concerns are health. Health has to ensure that it’s responsive to the needs of our citizens in the NWT, in our communities. It also needs to be accessible so that it’s readily made available to our people. One example is I’ve been really, really pushing the idea of the enhancement of the Pharmacare program. I know I’ve heard this before. We have an aging population. At some point it’s going to make more sense for us to provide services at the local level. So we need to enhance, as an example, our Home Care Program staff so that they’re professionally trained, they’re tapped into the local labour markets and we have people working from the communities at the same time. It could be that we have our RNs working with our local people in the Home Care Program when they visit elders in their communities to bring foot care, or doing diabetes awareness, you know, the preventative care so that people can stay at home as long as they can.
There are still things that could be made available in terms of how it is that this government engages with the local communities. Schools have been, I think, very consistent in terms of trying to brandish the goals to students that education is the best alternative at this point of trying to improve our lives in our communities, and we need to keep focusing on that goal and inspiring our students to continue with their education.
Of course, the riding that I represent sometimes is challenged with being caught between those two district centres we have, the Deh Cho district with service out of Fort Simpson and sometimes we’re serviced out of the South Slave office, either Hay River or Fort Smith, and sometimes it’s challenging to try to figure out which district you’re supposed to operate out of.
Just briefly in closing, there are some things that I think still need to be focused on and it’s just cost of living. I think this government is making steps to try to address that. The transportation corridors, does it include pipelines, does it include railroads? Those are just some comments that I have, and with the
budget process there has to be a public element of ensuring that people have their opinions expressed and that they’re listened to as well. I think hopefully the Borrowing Authorization Act will go down that line. Mahsi.