Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to spend any time here today rehashing the items that are in the budget and what aren't. I've sort of sat down to formulate my thoughts over the last week or so and really thought my best bet would be to get up to speak from my heart because that is where I am -- what I am using to make my decision.

One thing that I have really learned over the last three years now in this role -- or almost three years -- is that we are only as strong as our weakest community and that until we start to build up the small communities and all of our residents in need and focus on that, we won't see prosperity for the territory as a whole.

While this budget does do things for Yellowknife as a group, I don't, like others, have an Indigenous leadership to go to; I don't have a specific group within my riding that is going to advise me on what they think. So, really, I have to vote what I think is right from my heart.

As we went through this process and I listened to the needs and the concerns of my colleagues on this side of the House and their frustration with the lack of progress that they see in their communities, I offered to them that my -- I don't know how to put this, Mr. Speaker, but that I would stand in solidarity with them.

To me, it's important that -- especially now as we are working together better as a group, the atmosphere on this side of the House has definitely improved in the last two sessions. As such, I think it's more important for me to show my colleagues that I support them and I support all residents of this territory.

While my specific constituents are probably getting as much out of this budget as they were going to get, that is not enough for me to say yes to the budget. I watch our government waste money left, right, and centre, and then yet turn down a small community ask or such for $150,000, yet we'll expand our public sector; we will not evaluate job descriptions to ensure people are working more efficiently.

To me, an economy is not having all of your people working for the government and being bureaucrats. And I very much still believe that senior bureaucracy in this territory is driving the decisions that are being made here and that I'm not sure that there really is leadership or will to change that.

So Mr. Speaker, with all of that being said, I'm going to speak with -- vote with my heart. I'm going to stand with my small community colleagues, and I will not be voting for this budget. Thank you.