Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A culture of entitlement is afoot and you can smell it a mile away. You only need to look so far as page 2 in Monday’s newspaper or even page 6 of today’s paper. What you’ll see is a monopoly saying competition is bad. Better yet, let’s make one company, they say, and eliminate all the competition by absorbing them.

Is anyone really fooled by this? I know the public isn’t fooled by this and they want to know who is defending the public’s interest. Because I know, they know, a lobbyist will defend the corporate interest.

Yes, I said a lobbyist, Mr. Speaker. It’s true. ATCO has hired their own operative on the ground, making deals. Who knows what they’re doing to look after the private interests of ATCO? I won’t say this person’s name – they don’t need to be called out by their individual name – but I can tell you, they have extensive experience being one of our former Finance Ministers here in the Northwest Territories in the last century.

What does this mean? Who’s working for the Northerners? Who is working for the everyday family? I don’t know. But I can tell you this operative is meeting with the who’s who and I’ve even been told they’ve been meeting with some MLAs.

What’s ironic is in my 15 years of experience, I’ve heard time and time again the business has always said, “We just want a chance to compete. Competition is good.” Competition is absolutely necessary. They will say they want to be given a chance to come to that table to put their best bid. And guess what. If it doesn’t work, sometimes it just doesn’t, and they will accept it, but they want the chance to compete, a fair shot. But ironically, a billion dollar company is saying they like business as usual.

So, as they create a facade, as we’ve seen in the paper, it’s nothing but a fear tactic, a fear tactic that I would call a campaign of entitlement. It is creative writing at its best and I give them good points for that. I understand that they care about what matters to them, but I’m not afraid of this billion dollar company, nor should any MLA in this room nor even any Cabinet Ministers should be afraid of them. We need to do what is right, and what is right is the Town of Hay River has called for a public process. We need to support them and respect that. And may I emphasize, a dually elected Town of Hay River council and their citizens demand this.

I’m not afraid of their lobbyists. Bring them on. They can work as hard as they can. I’ll work even harder, as I can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.