Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome Members back to the continuation of the Fifth Session of the 17th Legislative Assembly. We

have been working together for almost four years now on our vision of strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally sustainable and prosperous Northwest Territories.

We have made progress on that vision in our time together, and I thank Members for their support and guidance on the many projects and initiatives we have successfully introduced.

As a government, we are committed to what is best for the people of the entire Northwest Territories. Hearing from Members in this Chamber about the views, values and priorities of the people they represent is one way we make sure our initiatives and decisions reflect what Northerners want and need.

As I have said throughout our term, the Northwest Territories has the potential to be an engine of economic growth for this country. We have the

potential to be a net contributor to this nation, not to be drawing upon it for support.

That is a goal worth striving for, the goal of a territory rich in jobs and opportunities for all its residents, with the financial means to pay its own way and the authority to make its own decisions about its future.

Creating a strong, sustainable, prosperous North is about choices, Mr. Speaker. While I have often said that the Northwest Territories has great potential and a bright future, that future is based on making realistic choices.

We need a strong and diversified economy to have the kind of Northwest Territories we envision. Growing that economy has to start with the advantages we enjoy. Those advantages include the ingenuity and ideas of the hardworking people who live here. They also include the wealth of natural resources the Northwest Territories has been blessed with.

Economic and social development in this territory have long depended on resource development. For decades, mining in the North Slave, South Slave and Sahtu gave Northerners jobs and literally built our communities. Oil and gas development has done the same for people and communities in the Mackenzie Delta and the Sahtu.

We all know that resource development can be a mixed blessing. None of us who sit in this building only a few kilometres from the former Giant Mine site can forget the potential downside of resource development that is not well managed.

That is why devolution is so important to us, Mr. Speaker. Devolution means Northerners making decisions about how to protect our land and environment and responsibly develop its resources. It means taking our time and applying made-in-the-North solutions that reflect northern priorities and values to resource management. Devolution means not having to make the mistakes of the past again.

We have learned from the past, and we have studied the best examples of responsible, sustainable development from around the world. The path to jobs and prosperity for Northerners lies in embracing our future and the natural advantages we enjoy. It does not lie in turning our backs on the legacy Northerners have been given in the hopes we can find some other basis for a strong economy and prosperous future.

But while our future is bright, Mr. Speaker, we cannot make the mistake of believing that it is inevitable. Our natural resource wealth cannot be transformed into prosperity for Northerners if we cannot develop it and move it to market.

That means making some deliberate and strategic choices about the path forward, Mr. Speaker. It means recognizing the advantages we possess, but

also addressing the challenges that we need to overcome.

It means investing in our people so they have the skills and training they need for jobs in newly vibrant industries.

It means research and development to better understand the Northwest Territories resource base and the latest best practices from around the world for responsibly developing them.

It means refining and improving the regulatory system we inherited as part of devolution and making sure it gives us the tools we need to responsibly and safely manage resource development according to northern values and priorities.

It means securing the fiscal capacity and flexibility to invest strategically in the energy, communications and transportation infrastructure that will help the Northwest Territories compete in today’s global marketplace and allow us to grow our economy, providing long-term jobs for our residents and revenues for northern governments.

It means strengthening our partnerships with Aboriginal and other governments, identifying the common priorities we can work together to pursue in the best interests of all Northwest Territories residents.

As we head towards the end of the 17th Assembly,

we continue to make progress on our priorities and enjoy successes. In the area of partnerships, we were pleased to have the K’atlodeeche First Nation become a signatory to the Devolution Agreement in March. We recently concluded an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and an agreement on capacity building for staff with the Gwich’in Tribal Council. Nationally, the Northwest Territories has taken a lead role in chairing the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group and supporting the National Roundtable on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which I attended along with Minister Ramsay.

In the area of the environment, Minister Miltenberger and I had the privilege of signing the Transboundary Water Management Agreement with the Government of Alberta in March. This agreement, many years in the making, is one of the first agreements of its type anywhere in the world and will ensure that decisions about water use in our two jurisdictions consider the needs of the ecosystem first.

Minister Miltenberger and I also represented the Northwest Territories at the recent Quebec Summit on Climate Change in April. Along with Nunavut and Yukon, we communicated the importance of addressing this issue, particularly in the North, while not impacting the high cost of living in the

North, undermining food security or threatening emerging economies.

We continue to take steps to build a strong, well-managed economy that creates sustainable benefits for Northerners. That work includes implementing the Economic Opportunities Strategy and Mineral Development Strategy and finalizing an Oil and Gas Strategy. It includes taking action on the high cost of energy and continuing to promote population growth in the Northwest Territories. We also continue to take steps to refine and improve the legislation transferred to our government a year ago, ensuring we have a strong system for managing development in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Fiscally, we were pleased to announce last month that the Government of the Northwest Territories has successfully negotiated a second increase in the federal borrowing limit and agreement to review the definition of self-financing debt. Our borrowing limit now stands at $1.3 billion, up from the $575 million limit we had at the start of this Assembly, when we identified increasing the limit as a priority.

This increase in our borrowing limit gives the Government of the Northwest Territories increased flexibility to invest in much needed infrastructure that will support the responsible development of the Northwest Territories and its economy and bring down the cost of living for communities and residents. The decision reflects this territory’s economic potential and recognizes our disciplined fiscal management.

We need to continue to exercise discipline in our spending decisions, even with this new borrowing limit. Before we make any spending commitments, there are some parameters that we all need to recognize. The first one is that we should only be considering strategic investments designed to support long-term economic growth for the territory, such as investments in public infrastructure.

Ensuring our territory has the energy, transportation and communications infrastructure business and industry need to be competitive in the North needs to be a priority. That investment will pay off in a strong and diversified economy that provides jobs and services to residents, while growing the Northwest Territories corporate tax base. Increased investment in public infrastructure will also continue to make our territory and communities an attractive and sustainable choice for current and new residents and help lower living costs.

The other parameter we need to recognize is that we cannot borrow to fund ongoing program and service delivery. While the desire to maintain existing programs and services or establish new ones might be strong, we can only do so if we have the revenues to pay for them. Going into debt to fund operations is not sustainable and must be avoided at all costs.

While our economic prospects are good as a territory, we have to face the fact that our economic growth is still slow, a result of the global economic slowdown several years ago and the more recent drop in world oil prices. That will continue to limit our revenues and our ability to pay for our operations. We will all be required to take a hard look at our books and work together to align our expenditures to our revenues, both for the remainder of this Assembly and into the next one.

We need to be diligent and follow our normal planning processes. Decisions on new investments will be made as part of the Government of the Northwest Territories normal planning processes and will include discussions with Members of the Legislative Assembly and other stakeholders.

Mr. Speaker, politicians are often called decision-makers, but “choosers” might be another way to put that. Faced with an array of possibilities and options, it is our responsibility to make wise and prudent choices based on our understanding of what will best match the needs, wishes and priorities of the people we represent.

Sometimes the choices are hard, even unpleasant, but the choices still have to be made. Where the best path is unclear, it is up to us to study the options, debate them in the Assembly and make a reasoned decision in the best interests of our territory and its residents.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 36(4) so that all Ministers’ statements provided to the Clerk can be delivered today.

---Unanimous consent granted