Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I may, I would just like to elaborate a little bit on our thinking when it comes to looking at alternatives in terms of the project management component of MACA. MACA's budget capital is significant. It has an impact on every community across the Territories. I have not taken a historical look at the costs. This time around I just took a look at the costs that came before us. It appears to me that if the current trend of these kinds of costs of buildings continues, we are just simply not going to be in a position to do very much. I realize there are certain rules and regulations, and policies if you want, with respect to DPW being the operational arm to delivering a product, but it is my belief that you should be given more latitude to look at alternatives, and it may be that if we can convince the powers that be this year, that if nothing else we run one or two or three experimental projects where you handle it yourselves in whatever manner you choose to do, whether it is design/build or lease -- that is another option that could be considered. And I believe in some cases, in the community of Iqaluit for example, the curling rink is leased through the municipality So some of these ideas have got to be considered.
It is not a question of, "Can we?". We have got to look at other ways of doing things so we can get more efficiencies of scale. We have to take a hard look at what our standards are. We do not want to build square boxes all over the country, but at the same time, if we get too complicated and let too many fingers in the pie -- it appears to me that in some ways the architects -- and I do not want to sound critical of architects -- are driving up, to some extent, the capital costs without any consideration for the financial limitations of this government. Never mind the ability to build them, because if we are going to use, as I said last week, the territorial budget as an economic instrument then no one of us can abdicate our responsibility in terms of making it simpler, if I am making sense to you. If it is an economic instrument and we have to
find a way to do the building, whether it is an arena or a community hall or a new hamlet office, we have got to remember that if we are going to involve more Northerners, and I am confident we will, then we have got to design and take a look at our capabilities for building as well, never mind the direct costs.
So I would urge you to take control of some of your capital projects, seek approval through the cabinet to do some experimental pilot projects, or whatever the term is, and let us do some cost comparisons and 1) see if we meet the standards and quality that we want and; 2) see if there is a significant savings. If there is not, then we stand corrected, but if it is done right -- in my experience and in discussions I have had with people across the Territories, there can be savings. That is all we are trying to say.
But I think, more importantly, aesthetically buildings have got to be pleasing, no question of that. But one of the problems we had in the past with the NWT Housing Corporation was that -- and the current Minister of the Housing Corporation spoke many times in the House about it -- buildings became so damned complicated that nobody could build them. It was all outsiders that had to come in. You had to be a mathematician to understand the plumbing and ventilation systems. I think that is another factor you have to take into consideration. If you make it too complicated, then it will limit, to some extent, our ability to maximize the northern content to the projects.
So MACA, with the size of its budget and its responsibility to the community level, runs parallel in some ways and even more so than the Housing Corporation, and therefore it has to view what it does in that light, in terms of an economic instrument, getting some activity going, making sure that we have maximum Northerners involved in it and getting more for less I think we can get more for less by taking some steps to do that, and I would encourage you to negotiate or whatever you have to do to get some freedom to do some of these things. Thank you.