Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think if any one of us designed this budget, it would not look the way it looks. I have things that I would like to see in here that aren't in here, and the same goes for every single Member. None of us gets everything we want. And that is consensus government. We hope we end up with something that is suited for all of us to the best -- to the best of our abilities. And this is a budget that we put together to the best of our abilities given our -- our priorities and our limitations.
To the Members who are, you know, wishing to see this budget fail, who are voting against this budget, I'd like to remind them that the alternative is that starting tomorrow, no one's getting paid. You know, I'm concerned about students going to school. Despite what some people might say, I am concerned about our student outcomes. I want schools to be opened. I want teachers to continue to be paid. I want the lights to be on at schools. You know, I want those power bills to be paid.
There was lots of talk about small communities. And when you arrive here in Yellowknife, even coming from Hay River, you know, this looks like the streets are paved with gold. But, you know, we all know that that's not the reality. There's more people here. So yes, there's more money here obviously. But there are supports going to small communities as well, and I'm going to speak about my department's.
So at the Department of Justice, this -- this budget is proposing nearly half a million for new RCMP positions in the Tlicho region. You know, I would hope that Members would support that. I've heard it from the Tlicho leadership directly on numerous occasions that they want that increase. And so we've worked with the RCMP, and we're providing that increase. We have additional money for positions in Tuktoyaktuk because there's a need there, and we want to support that community.
And there are some territorial resources which I've heard, you know, so much about today that people don't appreciate. Well, the territorial resources in question here are the RCMP internet exploitation unit. They stop human trafficking. They stop -- they help stop our children from getting on planes and going down south and becoming, you know, part of -- part of something I don't even want to talk about. You know, it talks -- this -- this unit helps everyone in the territory. Those are the kind of centralized funds that we are spending.
The money that is in this budget is being used to decentralize positions. There's positions in Yellowknife that we are sending out to regional centres. This money has budget for -- this budget has money for positions that were decentralized by the Department of ECE last year. So it's ongoing funding.
This money -- this budget has money for Heritage centres which are primarily outside of Yellowknife. And I know they can use it. I have a Heritage centre in my community. I know they could use it. They haven't seen an increase in many, many, many years. And that is going to benefit communities outside of Yellowknife.
And as an MLA, I will say that I share the thoughts of all the other Members who are happy to see this increase in housing funding. You know, I have constituents who apply for grants to have their homes fixed. You know, you might need a roof. You might need a new roof for $60,000. And you are working full time, and you're taking care of a couple kids, and you just can't afford it. And I've seen those people get denied because there's no money left in the pot. Now we have money left in the pot. That's a real impact on our constituents, you know, and I'm happy to support that as well.
Mr. Speaker, is this budget perfect? Of course not. No budget is ever perfect. But I think that we need to realize that we didn't come into this Assembly to make 50 million, a hundred million, $150 million worth of cuts the way that we generally see coming into an Assembly.
We made our way through a pandemic without making those types of cuts. We made sure that we kept money in the budget and we kept people employed.
So maybe everyone isn't getting everything they want today, but that doesn't mean that there are not significant benefits to this for the MLAs and for the people of the territory.
So along with my Cabinet colleagues, I'll be supporting this. Thank you.