Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, just going back to earlier statements by Minister Todd about the rules of engagement having been changed and he can show me and the rest of the MLAs the capital projects and the budgets for the last 10 years for Mr. ???, but I think the first statement that he made that the rules have changed negates his capital budgets for the last 10 years. Because 10 years ago, nine years ago, eight years ago, one year ago, you are in a different situation. It was the glory days and the Stu Hodgson days when someone could come in and put things where they wanted to. You cannot compare apples and oranges by talking about the rules of engagement. I do not think anyone is questioning the management plan, the management scheme, the management style of the government. I think the questioning here is on specific program.
The capital budget is $150 million and it is a small part of the billion dollar budget, but the reality is that the total budget of the Northwest Territories is not discretionary dollars. Those dollars have to go into salaries and so on and so forth. One of the few things an MLA has an opportunity to influence is the capital spending in his riding. That is the point.
A specific question then to the Minister of Transportation on the project that appeared in the infrastructure committee of which I am chair of was that the $1055 million for the alternate island access in Fort Simpson was deferred from the original project budget and seemed to be a priority of the Minister. We had no problem with that. All of a sudden I end up looking at my capital plan last week and I see that in actuality it was deferred and cancelled and the money went into a recreation centre. I do not care if it went from a million dollars down to $600,000. It is the principle and the point of this. It is not the dollar value. I do not care if it was $100,000. The point being that the amount was changed and it went into a project. Now, Mr. Todd talked about the justification of expenditures and primary facilities. Well, when I see a recreation centre, for example, I cut my million dollar recreation centre last year. I did not jump up and down this year and say, "Put it back on the capital plan." If it was $600,000 or $500,000, maybe the Minister can justify why the recreation complex or whatever was done with that "X" number of dollars because all we can go by is what is on the capital budget and the alterations to such. I do not want this big song and dance and history lessons from people over here about what was done in the past and the rules of engagement have changed, and it is based on this capital budget.
I was not here last year and I was not here 10 years ago. I do not care how much money you have spent. My question and direct question Mr. Todd keeps asking, I will question the Minister of Transportation, why was this project deferred? Why was that re-allocated to new project which was not a primary facility and maybe the Chairman of FMBS can tell us why it was such a need to go ahead.