Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today our theme is focusing on small communities.

Small communities of the NWT are a major part of the identity and the uniqueness of the Northwest Territories. We have many beautiful communities and cultures from Alberta border all the way up to the Arctic coast, and our territory covers vast distances.

Mr. Speaker, our small communities also have a lot of needs some of the other largers take for granted. Some small communities have no doctor, and few don't even have a nurse full-time in their community. Some have no RCMP. Schools struggle for teachers in their community due to many reasons but one we've heard numerous times is the lack of housing. If someone is injured in a small community, they can't call an ambulance to bring them to the health centre. The graduation rates in our smaller communities are lower than the rest of the Northwest Territories. The unemployment rates are high in the small communities. Our residents in all communities struggle with mental health and addictions but in our small community, there are less support for them in their community. There is lack of housing available, which leads to family overcrowding. With overcrowding, Mr. Speaker, we have seen in the past years, like TB go through our communities, and then most recently COVID-19 hit some of our small communities very hard.

Mr. Speaker, these are things that I've heard from residents of the Northwest Territories coming from small communities and my colleagues here in the House.

Mr. Speaker, with the pandemic hopefully behind us now, it's time for us to get back to work on these and other important issues for our residents that they deserve. So, I look forward to working with my colleagues here today to really try to bring positive change for the people of small communities. Thank you, colleagues, and thank you, Mr. Speaker.