Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we head into what is likely to be a very large, global recession, I believe it is time for the Northwest Territories to double down in diversifying its economy and building a knowledge economy. I think one of the best ways we can do this is to continue forward in our path to create a polytechnic university; a polytechnic university that will meet our increasing skilled labour demands, which will allow industries in the North to build skills and experience to eventually compete for contracts, not just here in the NWT but across Canada and the world. Mr. Speaker, I want to see a university with northern, southern, and foreign students all coming here to learn together. I believe, in the past, there have been many northern economy success stories, but where we often see as northern businesses who get too successful, grow too large, and they pack up and move their headquarters. We need to break that cycle.
Mr. Speaker, I don't want the diversification of the economy debate to be an anti-mining debate. I think that is a false dichotomy, and we must build upon what we have. We are about to spend a billion dollars on Giant Mine remediation. I believe we have to build the skills to make sure that we get every dollar out of that contract. Mr. Speaker, we are leaders in geoscience. We are leaders in mining logistics, ice road building, and so many of these knowledge economy skills that we can build from the resource sector, Mr. Speaker. These are all things we can and should teach in our new polytechnic.
Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt we are government economy, and as the recession comes, this is, in fact, a good thing for us, to have a stable flow of government money into our economy. I have no issues with this, but every single dollar we invest must grow our economy to be more diverse and more resilient, such that in further economic downturns, all of our companies can find alternative means to succeed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to make sure our plan to establish a polytechnic university is still on track.