Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we return to this House in the midst of COVID-19, I can start to feel something in the air again, and that is the entrenchment of the status quo creeping back in. However, when you are in the eye of a hurricane, you often cannot feel the whiplash around you. I can feel a sense of complacency sneaking into this House. There will be another wave of COVID-19. We are heading into one of the largest depressions in any of our lifetimes. Let's not also forget that we are in the midst of a climate emergency, which will cost alone on our infrastructure billions of dollars which we do not have. I know there are problems in the North. Often, you can simply look at these problems, and they can seem insurmountable, so it's best to just push them aside. However, we cannot let that mentality creep back in. During our COVID-19 response, I was truly honoured to be a part of this government. I was passionate, and I saw a government that moved quickly although not perfectly, and I believe this should be our government motto.

Mr. Speaker, the quest for perfection is a false one, and as the bureaucratic trenches and thinking and processes are pulling us all back in and the risk aversion that has plagued this government for decades is re-emerging, we must resist it. I see the old and tired political debates start to divide us again. I see the same decisions to do nothing start to be made again. I see Ministers' statements resorting to platitudes once again. My dream is that I could sit in this House and I could be a conservative, that I could sit over here and I could have Ministers and I could say, "Whoa, slow down. Did you think about that? What are you doing? Did you plan that out?" However, instead, on this side of the House, we repeatedly ask for things, and we are repeatedly told "no," Mr. Speaker. "No, we can't do that."

I honestly do not believe any one of us ran to implement a department strategic plan. We were passionate, and we were all excited MLAs. I have seen the response to COVID-19 bring that out. Mr. Speaker, now is not the time to become complacent. Now is the time to make quick and brash decisions that may not be perfect but that will get us through the impending crises that we have to come. I believe we can do this. I believe we can bring the people of the Northwest Territories together to overcome the challenges, but let us not become complacent simply because the weather is nice outside. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.