Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I will not be in the chamber next week, I took the opportunity of sharing my reply to the budget. But from yesterday's three presentations by my colleagues, I couldn't have said it any better so I will echo their replies in addition to emphasize our declining economy. To some degree, the level, and as mentioned by our business Minister this morning, the North needs capital. We've already seen that. So it's inspiring to see the defense spending allocated for the North in the billions of dollars. That is going to be welcoming news to our commerce community. And I see a need similar to my declining economy with the closure of the Norman Wells production oil field. In this community, we have the declining closure of the diamond clients. So I would emphasize in deliverance of the budget allowance for readiness, marketing of the opportunities to come.
A good example to do that is to have a town hall in our Great Hall. That would inspire and have an open door policy to the invited guests of our commerce community to share what's coming. I can't wait for that day when the Mackenzie Valley Highway is not only a contributor to this territory but a contributor in a number of benefactor ways, taking the bondage of isolation on the communities down the Valley. You put that into perspective, it will bring nothing but prosperity to the income support clients, to our residents. Now you've got productive choices. You can take your U-haul and go to Grand Prairie and load it up with affordable groceries.
As one colleague said, as a senior, seasoned Member of this Assembly, I've never seen our North in a desperate state as I see it today. Some areas are a little bit lower than others, but we have the final negotiations to design this budget to reflect what we need, and I look forward to those deliberations. But making allowance to sustain today's society which is plagued by so many problems that spin off and create poverty and mental stress on our residents. Gee, I really want to afford Christmas presents, I heard a number of times, but I don't have the money for my children. Now that brings stress to the father and mother of that home.
Those are examples we hear out in the small communities, Mr. Speaker. And now I think this year is a welcoming year for prosperity. We've just got to showcase that and design our budget to reflect and giving allowances to have revitalization workshops in the Sahtu, in other parts of the region, sharing what our government is doing to the people of the Deh Cho. So we take our message to the communities.
As our chair of the AOC mentioned, we are resource rich and cash poor. There's a cry for critical minerals. Why aren't we looking at reforming our regulatory process to streamline that and make it better? Yes, I agree, our Resource Management Act is underway with finalization of the regulations. But could it be speeded up? You ask those questions of progress and progress to achieve our mandate, execute more importantly these projects. And these projects will justify the Minister of ITI's statement earlier, the North needs capital. We need capital, and we need to execute that capital to build infrastructure.
As I mentioned in my statement, the best social program is a job. Now that job income is going to build and eliminate mental stress to the family in isolation. Repeatedly, we've talked about the cost of living in the Northwest Territories. Yes, there's solutions to that. Let's take isolation and throw it away and replace it with affordable access, and affordable access will attract investment. Resource development will escalate.
So, Mr. Speaker, I don't want to take too much of the time other than what's been said. I totally agree, but I just emphasize to the 20th Assembly, for the latter half of our term we need to make decisions and set deadlines to achieve that schedule that's going to create capital to the North. Mahsi.