Thank you, Mr. Speaker A big thing is the Transportation Strategy. You know, we heard from the Mineral Association of Canada when we had NWT Days and they said that in order to ship resources out, we need infrastructure and I think that questions I had earlier today for the Minister of Transportation show that we need that infrastructure in place so we can start creating jobs. Even if it’s not directly related to the oil industry, at least we’re creating jobs.

All you’ve got to look at is what’s happening up in our region: the Inuvik Tuk Highway; a decrease in income assistance; you’ve got more people working, more families that are able to secure jobs; even the youth that are coming up; so there are a lot of benefits there, even if it’s just working on building that infrastructure up the Mackenzie Valley. During the whole education process of the public engagements, what I heard from that engagement was the shale potential, shale potential for the Gwich’in, the Inuvialuit, of course in the Sahtu, Liard Basin, Cameron Hills. There are tons of it all over the Northwest Territories and, you know, a lot of potential.

Let’s wait until we hear the reports. Let’s see what the government can do before we decide to stop anybody from doing anything. Like I said, we’re debating something that’s not even happening right now.

Coming from the other side of the committees that work and operate in the government, I chair the Standing Committee on Social Programs. You know, we fight for every nickel and dime to provide treatment, to provide counselling, education, work within the justice services. You know, we talk about health centres, schools. We talk about infrastructure to make it the best possible services and programs for the residents who need them.

Last year we just passed a $1.7 billion budget for a population of about 43,000 people, which is, I think, a lot of money when you look at it. I know that we cannot continue to sustain those kinds of programs and services for the people and residents without getting any kind of source of revenue somewhere else. Yet we’re one of the leaders in the world in terms of the shale activity, and I know we do need jobs.

When I ran my campaign, I ran on a social agenda and I still pushed that agenda but learned more about what we need as a territory and as a government, and I think residents also need to see this side of the picture. They need to know that we need jobs to keep our economy going, to keep our government going and to provide a tax base and also provide revenue to keep our programs, our social programs – income assistance, housing, education, Student Financial Assistance – going and operating.

So this motion today is going to be very interesting. We’re trying to already put the shackles on the 18th Assembly. Even in the 18th, like I said, this might not even happen. I look at it on both sides. I’m trying to make a conscious decision, based on the facts and based on what we’re still waiting to hear from the government. But we’re trying to pass a moratorium on something that’s not even happening in the Northwest Territories, and that just boggles my mind and I think that we should, when that happens, when we get the reports, when we get all the information that we need, and if we don’t like it then, then let’s bring the moratorium forward and let’s say, “Hey, you guys went out. You did your consultation. We don’t like it. Let’s put the moratorium in.” Then we can stop it.

We’ve got another sitting of this government in September and I think that’s when this moratorium should have been introduced, not at the tail end of this, not when we’ve got the Energy Charrette report, not when we’ve got the Transportation Strategy. I think we should have got it when we’ve got all the pieces of the puzzle together and then make a decision on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.