Thank you, Mr. Chair. In order to be productive in our society today, we have to be healthy. In order to be healthy, we have to have homes. And right now, I don't feel that this government is reaching out to the people of the Northwest Territories saying that we are going to prioritize what you wanted. During our elections, I've heard numerous times, every house I went to, you know, they showed me the condition of their houses. Some people were walking around because they didn't have houses. And that's what they wanted. They have children that's walking with them, they're going to a friend's house, parents. These are just band-aid solutions.

The Indigenous government stated that their main priority was housing. I go back to my community of Fort McPherson and I hear that on a daily basis, that housing is a priority. They should be pouring money into it and when you look at what was proposed, it was an insult.

In order for our students to be productive, they got have a good night's sleep, they have to stay warm, and the education system is failing them. I hear that continuously from staff members that work at the schools, that these students are uneducated. They can't read at the level they're supposed to be reading. You know, I feel sorry for those teachers because they're trying, but yet there's another group of students who's illiterate that's in the grade that's going to come up next year. And the cycle continues until they're pushed through another door, and that door is income support where they're given everything. They're given the opportunity not to work. They're given the opportunity not to go to school to further their education and be productive residents of their communities. And it's sad to see that because, you know, previous governments, this has been going on for years. I've witnessed people going -- that are adults now that have children that are going to school, and they're in the same situation. They're sending their children to school because they know they'll have free time. That's what these staff members are saying. They're just sending their children to school because they know they'll have a good seven hours of not -- you know, being away. But the ones that are suffering is the students themselves. They're not given the opportunity to get a good education. That education system is not working at all.

And the income, I've always stated, you know, continuously income assistance needs a review. We have to give our residents of our communities a chance at life. We have inadequate health care within our smaller communities. We need to look after our elders. I've often heard that from our people in the communities, our leadership, saying that our elders are our greatest resources, that we have to look after them and yet, as a government, we're not looking after them.

We have criminal activities within the housing units that's not being addressed. The residents of each community knows of these people. Before coming into government, I tried to address that as a resource person in the community. I went to the local housing authority. And the answer they gave me was, you know, in order for them to act on this they have to give them 24 hours notice and by the time they give them 24 hours, they deliver their letter saying that they're going to come search their house, they're moved on to another unit. So we need something in there where we can correct this problem because it's the children of our communities that are hurting.

I know of this one gentleman in my community who was homeless for years, and he slept at different homes within the community and now housing gave him a home, and his home is like a homeless shelter because he knows how it feels for others to be homeless. So he opens his one bedroom house to people that don't have a place to go. He knows the feeling. So some of these -- we always talk about homelessness, well, I've stated this, like maybe about 20 years ago you never saw that in our communities because family members, friends, took them in. You never saw anybody walking out on the streets. But now with all these drugs in our communities, people don't want to be bothered because they're scared because these people are -- they may be a danger to their families. And it's difficult to see this.

I can't go back to my community if I support this capital budget here. I can't go back to my community and say that, you know, everything's going to be okay because it's not. The residents of my constituency put me in this position to look after their well-being, and I have to look after their well-being. So my position is that I will not be supporting this budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.