Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I start my Member statement, I'd like to wish a very and happy birthday to -- 91st birthday to a very special Elder in my community, Auntie Margaret Lennie.
Mr. Speaker, the 2020-2021 annual report of the Director of Child and Family Services was tabled. I'm happy to see that the report -- in the report that there was a decrease of a hundred children in permanent care. But, Mr. Speaker, that has taken ten years to bring that number down.
I'm also very happy to congratulate the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation on their announcement yesterday, for their board passed to implement their Inuvialuit Family Way of Living law, which will ensure that Inuvialuit children and youth in care, as well as their families, are supported wherever they live.
Mr. Speaker, in the NWT, we know that Indigenous people make up just over half of the population but our children are overrepresented in Child and Family Services. Our adult jails have an overrepresentation of Indigenous males. Our females are overrepresented as victims of violence.
On the flip side, Indigenous people in the territory are underrepresented in the GNWT employment rates, underrepresented in the graduation rates is just a couple of areas.
Mr. Speaker, I sit here as a Member in this House to make the decisions on how to make the NWT a better place and equitable for all its residents, and I find myself wondering if this will ever happen. It seems that we are constantly in crisis mode. We have declining infrastructure with climate change on our doorstep destroying it faster than ever. We have huge needs in our social area, with no money to really make an impact and an example in our homelessness crisis, our mental health and addiction needs. With our health care deficit growing, there's never enough money to go around. I could go on, Mr. Speaker, but I won't. As the federal dollars that is used to fund us won't come pouring in. The revenues in our territories are going down, and we sit here asking for more for our communities, not because we're greedy, but it's because what our residents need.
Mr. Speaker, we are two years into our term, and I'm push -- and we're pushing up on the borrowing limit ceiling that was raised by this government.
Mr. Speaker, what direction are we going? Are we climbing, or are we sinking? Mr. Speaker, we keep spending but are we really making a difference, or are we just here to keep the lights on for Canada to tell the world that the North is part of them?
Many of our own government departments are asking for a whole-of-government approach because they know they cannot improve the situation by themselves. It's time for Ottawa to provide us with what we need so we can do more for our residents and not just keep the lights on and the heat low so we don't freeze. I will have questions for the Premier later. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.