I am sure that from the Yukon they can spit, and they see Russia for sure. We are definitely having a good time here tonight, Mr. Speaker.
I meet often with first nations people in my riding, and one of the things they say is that they always look at everything for seven generations. They often talk about their seven generations. They look down the road seven generations. They know whatever they are doing today will have an impact and they want to make sure that what they do today has beneficial impacts seven generations from now.
I would argue that the current government is definitely not taking that approach. Particularly when it comes to their deficit spending and the massive debt that they are taking on, the Liberals are not looking at how the seven generations that follow us in this place are going to have to deal with bringing the debt and the deficit under control. I would say that we need to look to our first nations communities for that example of considering the seven generations. That is very important for them, and it is something that we can embrace in this place. In everything we do, we can consider how it is going to affect the next seven generations. I very much reprimand the current government for its use of taxpayer dollars, its use of deficit spending, and the ballooning of our debt from that particular perspective.
I also would like to comment a bit about the resource development that happens in the north. In the party that I come from, we often talk about resource development. It is something we say all the time, but we do not necessarily put how it affects everyday life into more concrete terms. Resource development in my riding is heavily based in the primary industry sectors, such as agriculture, mining, forestry, the oil fields, and those kinds of things. We talk about it, but then we still do not necessarily know what it means or how it impacts our individual lives.
I would ask members to take a look around them. They are going to see wood. That comes from the logging industry in this country. I imagine that the pads in front of us are made from some sort of plastic material. That comes from the oil patch. If we look around us, we are going to see some metal that came from mining. The copper wiring that we see all around us comes from a copper mine. I know that in northern B.C. there is a large copper mine that I have driven by before. All of these kinds of things make our lives better. That is the real point.
I come from an automotive background. I worked as an automotive mechanic. I definitely think that automobiles have made our lives better. The fact that we can get from point A to point B in a relatively short time is something that even my grandparents, when they were my age, would never have considered, or that we would be able to drive 100 kilometres an hour for 12 hours at a time without any major breakdowns.
That we can get across this country in less than a day is still mind-boggling to my grandparents. All of the resource development, all of those things that start out in rural Canada, have an impact on our everyday lives. All of those things say nothing to the person who has that job at that mine, that sawmill, that oil installation, or that refinery. I know several people who are gold miners in Yukon. It is an adventure and a great thing for the people who gold-mine in the Yukon. I think there is even a TV show about it. However, it also puts food on the table for their family.
I have a quote from Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge, who is not from Yukon but the Northwest Territories. He testified at the committee with respect to our suicide study. I think this quote is fitting for this discussion as well. He said:
I was told a couple of weeks ago that the unemployment rate in our community is 54%. And you mentioned self-esteem. Boy, if the band or a band company could create some jobs.... If you have a family and a father, and they could give him a job, holy man...that would make a big difference in anybody's life.
That is what we are talking about today: jobs for people in the north of Canada, jobs for people to provide their family with an income, food, clothing, and shelter. That is what the economy is all about, providing people with the ability to provide their family with food, clothing, and shelter.
The other thing that comes with the economy is wealth creation. We hear more and more all the time at the northern and aboriginal affairs committee how we are not managing wealth, we are managing poverty. The first nations communities across this country are saying that they are living in third world conditions, and I agree with that to some degree. However, the trouble is we are not allowing wealth creation to happen in those places. We have to unshackle these communities and allow them to pursue wealth creation. To do that we need to get investment to come in. That goes to the very heart of this bill. With this bill, and the time frames being extended, or with no end dates being put on them, we are not bringing it in. People who have a billion dollars to invest anywhere in the world will look around the world and say that Yukon is unstable, and that they are not quite sure how long they will have to work there before the project that they think will make them money will actually get going, so they would rather go to a jurisdiction where they know and understand the timelines.
What we really need to do is allow the investments to come in to the north to provide the people who live there the jobs they need to provide for their family. In the process, they will produce a product out there that the rest of the world can use to make their lives better. The stuff that we develop in Canada we export around the world. That makes the lives of people all around the world better. Therefore, we need to ensure that the investments come to northern Canada, and that development happens in northern Canada so that the people who live in those communities can make the quality of their life better, and that with those products that are produced in those communities and shipped around the world, Canadians will make every person's life in the entire world better.
With that, I will wrap it up. This bill is wrong-headed because it takes out a number of things that had brought stability to Yukon. We will see a withdrawal of investment in that area, and it says nothing to what will happen to the current projects that will be sitting in limbo after this bill is passed.
I look forward to the questions.