Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, I agree that this might be an emergency, but my view is that we have a process in place to ensure communities have fair opportunity to access capital dollars in this government. As we all know, the deficit situation of this government is out there. I do not see any other communities being able to access a similar program, knowing that we have just as bad roads in most of our communities, and also that we have seen the effects of development in our communities, but yet, this government for some reason shortcuts the capital planning process when it comes to Ministers' ridings.
I would like to ask the Minister of Finance exactly why is it that a major expenditure, the $1.3 million, has been put in place, knowingly that we requested from the small communities to consider a program to improve our road infrastructure in our communities. You clearly stated through a letter to the Minister, the chairman of the government's committee, that you were going to have that program available to the Members by the end of September. We have not seen it, but yet you are making major expenditures for the benefit of improving infrastructure in one community.
Again, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance exactly why is it that there is a process in place to look at all infrastructure in the Northwest Territories to ensure that we have the resources to take it on, because we can all find reasons to improve our infrastructure in our communities. In some cases, the roads are just as bad elsewhere.