Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off my budget address, my reply to it, by an experience I had this morning with my youngest daughter, Sine, who is eight years old. It was a pleasant surprise. I had my notes in hand. I was scrambling to get my address out and what I wanted to say today, and I was greeted with a "happy birthday." She helped make breakfast. It brought me right down. It humbled me. It brought me down a couple of notches, and that's what we all need, I think, once in a while, just to be humbled and realize what we're doing here.
She told me, "Daddy, I see some grey hair now, but I still love you. You should dye your hair. It looks like you're working on something." She looked at my notes. She said, "Don't worry about mistakes, Daddy. I still love you." I thought I should share that with you.
It really made me think when I was writing this, it made me question: what are we all doing here? What are we doing here? What are we really doing here? I looked at my daughter, and we're here for our children, for future generations, for the people that we serve. My great-grandparents who raised me, they told me one key thing is to always leave a place or job in a better condition to when you left it, and that's what I want to do here. That's what I plan on doing in my job as an MLA. We have three and a half years left here in our term, and that's not a lot of time. We still have a lot of work ahead of us.
Mr. Speaker, my initial reaction to this budget address delivered by the Minister of Finance last week was one of dissatisfaction. On the face of it, this budget appears to be largely status quo and, as I've heard my other colleagues mention as well, with little or no extra money being invested in the smaller communities. I could also characterize this budget as a safe budget that stops short of any bold or interesting proposals. That, however, is not totally surprising given the current financial outlook for our government. One thing for sure, though, when I looked at the specifics of this budget, is that one question keeps popping in my mind: do we, as a government, have vision going forward?
A little bit of humour: this budget, when I first read it, made me think of a food analogy. There is a traditional German rabbit dish called Hasenpfeffer. It's a gourmet dish. You put some spices on it. It's a gourmet dish, and you serve it. After thinking about it, I'm a Dene man, looking at it, it's just simply rabbit soup. It is what this budget is. It's plain. In our language, we call it "gah chaze," in case you were wondering. Again, we should always take things with a grain of salt, and we should always look through the smoke and mirrors of any government proposal, and always think realistically.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with our Finance Minister, who said in her budget address last week that this is a land of opportunity. I would like to go a little further than that and state that we live in a G7 nation, in arguably one of the most resource-rich areas on the planet. What bothers me the most, Mr. Speaker, is, through all this, many of our residents are still living in poverty all over the territory. I am not good with that. We still see a disproportionate number of our Indigenous populations in jails, with high levels of unemployment, with little prospects for the future.
Mr. Speaker, I, for one, did not sign up for this. I did not sign up to see our neighbours to go without, with no reasonable end in sight. Again, I will say it again, we should feel humbled and privileged to sit in this House. I have said before that, for the remainder of this term, we have job security, and a lot of the people we serve do not. We need to create opportunity for our neighbours in our small communities and regional centres.
I did want to mention something, as well. I wanted to thank the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, I'm going to say it again, about showing some innovation in their policy changes, and namely for allowing small businesses to run out of their public housing units. I think that's a great idea. To me, this is huge, because it gives hope to those living in the small communities.
Mr. Speaker, I believe, through all of this, the best way to restart our economy is through business. As my colleague from Yellowknife North mentioned the other day, we have a very small tax base. Small businesses create jobs, and we need to assist those who have aspirations to create new businesses to help them thrive. Our government needs to be a catalyst in this endeavour.
I remain hopeful, though, Mr. Speaker, that our priorities in the small communities will improve. We still have resources in our territory. However, I want to make it clear I will not support any development unless we see more of our Indigenous and northern partners involved, in terms of business and jobs. I am also hoping that we see some resolution with our partners in the Akaitcho, Dehcho, and Metis very soon. We need to have them and our other Indigenous partners at the table with us for any new development. Along with any new business opportunities in the North, we also believe in responsible development, and we will make sure that we will take care of the land and move forward in an environmentally conscious way.
Moreover, Mr. Speaker, I do not and will not support any business endeavours that will see money or resources leave the territory. My belief is that every dollar in the NWT that is lost is harmful to our economy. No more. I am tired of seeing foreign entities taking jobs and contracts and seeing their monies leave the territory, leaving little for Northerners. Parasites act in such a manner. I know that may sound extreme, but I really believe that.
I also want to say something about networking, Mr. Speaker. I want to give kudos to our Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment for promoting our territory and trying to bring some investment dollars into our territory. I know that some of us around this room might receive some flak for taking the time to travel outside the territory for our jobs, but I think it's necessary. We need to engage with industry and business leaders. It's very important, because you never know, that one conversation we have could lead to an important business or job opportunity. If I travel to a conference, that's what I always set out to do; and, if a handshake turns into two or three jobs in a small community, that's huge, in my opinion.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to say something about cost of living. Past Assemblies left some legacies, both good and bad, that we have inherited here in the 19th Assembly. Keep in mind the note I said earlier, about trying to leave a workplace or a job better than when he left it. One legacy I do not want to leave future assemblies is leaving our NWT families with an exorbitant, high cost of living. This government needs to do whatever it can to keep our residents in our territory. People are moving away and, in turn, we are losing funds like territorial financing from the federal government; we need to be innovative in doing that.
Mr. Speaker, I am also not proud about this system we are creating. What I mean by that is that we have created a system where, right now, it is easier for people to quit a well-paying job, go on Income Assistance, and live in public housing, rather than live and work with little financial struggle as some people can in a wage economy. For example, you have a single parent with a very well-paying job trying to support a family in a smaller community, and they will just barely get by. I don't like that. I'm not good with that.
We have created a system where those on Income Assistance would be in a better financial situation than that of someone who is employed with a well-paying job. This has got to stop. I looked at the budget here the other day, as well, during Justice, and I'd like to see some more partnerships down the road. I'm not sure how this would look, but I'd like to see a line where, instead of funding the RCMP, I'd love to see a police service being funded in the Akaitcho region, or maybe in the Deh Cho region, or the Tlicho region, down the road, moving away from this RCMP model, this colonial model and moving forward in that fashion. That's just another side note; I'd love to see that somewhere down the road.
I would also love to see, eventually down the road, more freedoms, in terms of more control of our courts, our health, and our education systems. Before we even start talking about that, we will need to finalize our agreements with Akaitcho, the Dehcho, and the Metis.
I firmly believe our end goal in this Assembly is to see more successful businesses, which will, in turn, create more jobs; and hopefully, at the end of all of this, we will see more people get off Income Assistance.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to let everybody know that I do not support this budget in its current state. The small communities, again, have been left out, and that's my position. When I looked at this mandate, you see a picture of someone on the ice with their hands out like this, but, I hope, at the end of this Assembly, this person will not be left wondering; this will be a representative of our small communities saying, "Oh, my God, you've left me out in the cold." Again. So I'm hoping that's not the direction we're going. I do not want to see that. I want to see our people thrive, not just survive. Our ancestors in the past worked very hard for what they had, and I believe that is what they would want for us, as well. Back in 1899, Treaty 8 was signed in Fort Resolution, in Deninu Kue, my home town. We need to honour agreements like this, and I'm hoping we can move forward to help people flourish, in the words of that agreement, as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the river flows. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.