Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to bring out a few points. I hear people and I hear their concerns in stating that we need to support people. I agree we need to support people, Madam Chair. I am a social worker by degree. I also ran four years ago because I wanted to address homelessness. Housing was a big priority for me when I came in. However, I also am a diamond driller's daughter, Madam Chair, and I recognize that a large portion of our gross domestic product in the Northwest Territories is dependent on the mining sector. I know because of my history and because of learning in this House, as well, that, if we find a valuable gold, silver, rare earths, cobalt, whatever it may be, even if we are talking about the green energy, today, it will take 10 to 15 years from that original find until we have a full-blown mine in operation. We know that our mines are closing down fairly soon. We know we haven't found anything right now. Is it fair of us, we talk about taking care of our future, if we don't promote something in our resource development market, trying to find something today? We are looking at a minimum of 10 to 15 years. That is our legacy we will be leaving to the governments to come.
I also know because I am the Minister of Indigenous Affairs that the money doesn't only stay in the Government of the Northwest Territories. We cost shared those royalties with the Indigenous governments over the last few years. They were making millions off this over the last few years. Because of the decline in our mining sector, their resource-sharing moneys are going down drastically. Every dollar that we put in to helping the Indigenous governments has been used to help. It helps us, too. The more that they get money for Indigenous governments, the more they build their own economy, the less it costs us in issues like public housing, income support, all of those issues.
I really want all Members to really think about this. We talk about our future. Not everybody wants to be a carpenter. Not everybody wants to be a plumber. If we put all our resources in building houses, and I am about building houses, but if we put all our resources there, we talk out a whole sector of people that their employment skills, they might not be wanting to go in that sector. I also know because I am a social worker, you need money to have social programs. I do not want us to end up being a welfare state, Madam Chair. I think that we have to look for resources now. If we don't find resources now, we are in trouble, and we are not helping our children and our future to come. Thank you, Madam Chair.