Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These days there is a constant tug-of-war in our Assembly for the money available for building and maintaining our schools, roads, airports and other infrastructure. It's further complicated, Mr. Speaker, in our consensus system of governing with the very legitimate expectations of departments and agencies, MLAs and Ministers, communities and regions, that everyone will get a share of the pie.

Let's face it. As MLAs, we all want to see something built, something improved, something new in each of our ridings and towns at least once in our four-year terms. But with a shrinking capital budget pegged this year at only $74 million, it's not a realistic or a sustainable expectation. How do we address it? How do we manage to do this to satisfy the ideal of fiscal fairness and yet deliver spending where and when it's most needed and get the best value for the taxpayers' dollar?

In previous Assemblies, Mr. Speaker, departments have had more or less a constant amount of dollars. After departments and MLAs and committees have worked out priorities, a letter was sent to mayors and chiefs. It was sent by the Premier to describe the spending initiatives planned for the coming year in each community. It invited comment, but no real input into planning. This changed somewhat with this Assembly. Now there is one pool of money the departments must share. For the past two years, a committee of deputy ministers has used a priority system rating safety or people and property first, to work out who gets how much money. Mr. Speaker, MLAs have been frustrated with this approach. It diminishes our voices and the voices of community and regional leaders in how capital dollars are spent. Informing the municipalities and regions after the decisions have been made is not the way to go. A suggestion I would like to make is that we look at a process where community leaders, MLAs and officials from the departments can all get together and create a spending plan that has everyone's interests in mind. Mr. Speaker, at one time I believe community governments were encouraged to prepare a multi-year community capital plan within their fiscal framework. This makes sense. To take the idea one step further, I would suggest that we only need to do this once every four years at the beginning of our terms, so we can reduce the annual spending scrimmage that takes up so much of our time and creates so much uncertainty and conflict at the community level and here in this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for North Slave, Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, am concerned about the current process used to identify projects. As I understand the ranking criteria, Mr. Speaker, the priorities are not seen to consider the needs of the small communities of the North. These criteria, especially the protection of people, may lead to projects from larger centres being placed before the needs of smaller communities. We need a more balanced approach to capital investment, Mr. Speaker. The government needs to establish a mechanism for meeting community involvement in the planning process, not just for local planning but for regional and territorial planning needs as well. The government also needs to ensure there is sufficient capital money to allocate the projects in smaller communities, even if it means not spending on mega projects such as territorial facilities that are not located in the smaller communities. There needs to be a mechanism set aside for the capital budget to meet the needs of the smaller communities based on planning criteria that is meaningful to their needs. I believe the government needs to make some changes to the ranking criteria for capital projects. The criteria should be simple and easily understood. It's not enough to just have a process either, Mr. Speaker. When decisions are made, it must be seen by all. Mr. Speaker, decisions on which capital projects get funded cannot be made behind closed doors with no explanation to the communities nor to the standing committees to justify those decisions. The government should be prepared to provide information about capital needs and the way priorities are assigned to projects. They should be prepared to report back to the municipal governments about the results of their input. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to add an opinion about this very important topic. Mr. Speaker, I think that the reality of our financial situation is quite dire. I think while there is a consensus that we have to do our necessary spending, the approaching debt wall in front of us is getting closer and closer. Mr. Speaker, one thing that needs to be remembered is the fact that this government has seen a major, major reduction in capital spending. Just in this year, capital expenditures are expected to decrease by 48 percent from $143 million last year to $74 million in this coming year. This is a very small amount out of $611 million in the total budget. I do believe that, as long as we have so little money in the capital budget, we will continue to hear concerns about what's going on behind closed doors and the ever present feeling that whoever squeaks the loudest or whoever bugs the Minister hardest or whoever pounds the desk the loudest will get the capital budget in their riding. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that this government has to make very tough choices in order to meet the spending needs in areas such as health and social services, but I think it's incumbent on all of us to come up with ways to do it better and reduce costs where we can. I think there are many realities that I must point out as a Member from Yellowknife, which is seen as one of the richest areas. But the reality is, Mr. Speaker, that the tax-based communities are not getting a lot of help from the GNWT to replace their aging infrastructure. Residents in tax-based communities have to pay more in the way of municipal taxes, but we have to line up behind every other community to get capital projects.

---Interjection

There is a public perception, Mr. Speaker, that a lot of the capital budget is spent in Yellowknife and this is not true. While it may be true that the budget is being spent at territorial facilities in Yellowknife, these facilities are not for the sole use of Yellowknife but for all Northerners. We have needs for schools and recreational complexes like everyone else, and I believe we need...Mr. Speaker, may I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement?

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude her Member's statement. Are there any nays?

Sorry, Ms. Lee, you won't be able to conclude your Member's statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as the gentlemen on the other side of the floor are concerned, we are all the same.

---Laughter

The capital planning process, Mr. Speaker, I, like my colleagues, would like to highlight some of the concerns we have with the supposedly new and improved capital acquisition process. If you go on the web site, Mr. Speaker, under capital acquisitions, you will find that the discussion begins something like this: "Commencing with the development of the capital acquisition plan for 02-03, the government has adopted a revised corporate capital planning process. The 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, it's hard to argue with that, but I think in the past, the public might suggest that the prior practice was simply of Cabinet sitting around and divvying up projects as horse trading exercises, Mr. Speaker. We all know this is a new time. We are new and improved. We are rehabilitated, as it were. We know we have limited resources and certainly not unlimited needs, insatiable wants. So, in theory, Mr. Speaker, this new process looks fine. But there is almost no way to clearly link this process to GNWT priorities. For that matter, Mr. Speaker, it's hard to define what our priorities are. We certainly can't look to the document we produced at the beginning of the Assembly, Towards a Better Tomorrow, to give us a documentation of our detailed priorities. It just doesn't do that. It's too vague and at too high a level. Mr. Speaker, without identifying these priorities, it's almost impossible to make a clear link between the capital process and our strategic priorities. If we are going to do anything, Mr. Speaker, step one has to be identifying our priorities in a clear manner and articulating them. Step two, Mr. Speaker, would be to apply ranking criteria to determine what projects should have highest priority. This would give us, and the public certainly, a transparent mechanism for scoring the projects. We would see how they stack up against other projects and this simply isn't the case right now, Mr. Speaker. As we know, and other Members have mentioned, currently this exercise is done by deputy ministers behind closed doors and it's not good, Mr. Speaker. Ministers on that side of the House have to be prepared to stand up and discuss the ranking and scoring of these projects with Members and with the public so that we can see where they compare. The lack of transparency just creates suspicion. It casts a shadow over the whole process, Mr. Speaker. When Regular Members ask for justification, at best we get a thick, technical assessment of a facility that purports to outline the shortfalls of that individual facility. But, Mr. Speaker, oftentimes it's about the size of a Toronto phonebook. This is not the same as a score sheet comparing a project against others on the basis of some agreed upon criteria. So, Mr. Speaker, if this truly is our objective, if it is not about patronage and not about pork-barrelling, we shouldn't be afraid to show it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Antoine. Item 3, Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I would like to bring your attention to the presence in the Speaker's Gallery of Robert Marleau. He's former Clerk of the House of Commons from 1987 to 2000. He is probably the leading authority on procedural matters in Houses of Parliament. Mr. Marleau is here along with his wife Anne to give the Board of Management some assistance on procedural matters. Please welcome Mr. Marleau to the Assembly.

---Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of people in the gallery today who are here to witness some of the work we are doing on our strategy and legislation to reduce impaired driving. I would like to recognize three of them. First of all, Ms. Louise Knox, who is the national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

---Applause

Then, as well, Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce Mr. Percy Kinney, the chief coroner of the Northwest Territories and also Major Karen Hoeft, director of community development of the Salvation Army. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, as well, would like to recognize Dr. Ross Wheeler, medical advisor to the registrar.

---Applause

Thank you. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the students from St. Patrick High School, the SADD members, along with their teachers Ms. Thoms and Ms. O'Brien.

---Applause

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.