Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, Mr. Speaker, I and the other Regular Members will be making statements about the Government of the Northwest Territories corporate capital planning process. As the committees apprised the House last week in our reports on the main estimates, Members have significant concerns about the process now used to rank projects in the capital plan. Mr. Speaker, Members discovered the Government of the Northwest Territories had adopted a revised corporate capital planning process starting with the 2002-2003 capital acquisition plan. According to the explanation offered in appendix B of the 2002-2003 Main Estimates document, this process allows for the allocation of available capital funding according to priority and need on a government-wide basis, as opposed to the prior process of allocating a capital budget target to individual departments. Mr. Speaker, in theory, this sounds fair. But, Mr. Speaker, Members are not convinced that the application of the process has been so fair. Now, perhaps we have just a problem in communication. Perhaps the government just hasn't properly explained how projects qualify for inclusion in the plan, but as things stand right now, we have not had reasonable explanations for a number of projects we have seen in the plan.
Another concern, Mr. Speaker, highlighted in last year's report and it continues this year, revolves around consultation. We have been told that community consultation is carried out on a departmental basis and that this consultation is taken into consideration in the development of the initial capital needs assessment, the ranking of the projects, and all the way through the review process. Unfortunately, Regular Members have not been given any evidence that these consultations are coordinated in any way, or if the communities see them as being adequate. Mr. Speaker, public sector spending is often the exclusive economic driver in our smallest communities, yet we do not see the importance of that included in the criteria for ranking capital projects. Ranking projects by priorities that are led by the protection of people and the protection of assets does not allow for a more responsive approach that recognizes the social benefits of capital spending in small communities.
Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues will point out today, there is a broad range of concern over how this new capital planning process is rolled out. Members were very critical of this process when we considered the estimates last year, and are disappointed that we have not seen any significant improvement a full year later. We need to hear from the government that they will examine the process and work with the Regular Members to make sure that we have a fair, open and transparent process for setting the capital budget. We want a process that recognizes the needs and diversity of all of our regions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause