Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to do a brief reply to the budget address, as well. Let me just make one general comment about the budget, Mr. Speaker, first.

I do share Mr. Braden's point that there has been quite a bit of feedback from the people out there on not only on what is in the budget, but what is not in the budget. I think for future references, the Minister of Finance should be mindful of the fact that the budget document is not just a communication tool for him to speak to the Minister of Finance in Ottawa. It is a document for everyone in the North. Everyone in the North needs to feel like they are included and reflected in the budget.

I know for a fact that there are lots of new initiatives and spending in social and health and many different areas that we are going through line by line, but on that important budget day, when the Minister of Finance gets up and reads the statement, that was not there. I think the Minister of Finance has taken that to heart and I am sure that he will not do that brief thing again next year.

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to take this opportunity to highlight the important issues surrounding the pipeline workforce conversion mentioned on page 5 of the budget, also known as the concept of ATCO Novel housing, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it is very important for the people out there to know that we are not dealing with the situation here as reported in the media where Imperial Oil has decided that it will leave behind 1,400 used mobile homes at the end of the pipeline construction and the government is being asked to pick them up at the bargain basement price and sell them to interested buyers or to those in need of social housing and make headway into our social housing issues. That is not as simple as that. If it were, I wouldn't have as much trouble as I do with this concept, Mr. Speaker.

What we are dealing with here is a situation where if this 15th Assembly does not do its job well of making sure that this housing Minister, this Finance Minister and the Cabinet does its due diligence, instead of leaving 1,400 nice homes all over the North, we could very well leave the 17th and 18th assemblies of this government with a $300 million plus housing boondoggle, Mr. Speaker. Already, the cost of this project has gone up from $220 million the last time we talked about it in November to $297 million in this session.

A large part of that cost increase is estimated to be for the interest to be charged to the federal government -- and get this -- because the federal government is not yet willing to come into this project at the front end. The positive response the Minister is talking about amounts to the former Housing Minister Fontana's verbal commitment, and a reasonable mind has to wonder why the federal government is not willing to come to the front end and make the kind of investment that this government is looking for in order for this project to happen.

Mr. Speaker, for the $500 million to come under the socio-economic impact fund to 22 affected communities, there have already been community workshops and discussions in communities about how the money will be spent. Yet, when we are talking about something as big as almost $300 million for this housing project, there is no such discussion taking place, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that I am personally offended when the Ministers and MLAs suggest that asking questions and having a critical view on this project amounts to not supporting or caring about bringing more social housing to small communities. This reminds me of a time when I opposed the hotel tax for every hotel room in the North because I thought that would do more harm for our hotel and tourism industry than good. I was then accused of not supporting the hotel industry because I wouldn't tax them. Well, we don't have that tax now and thank goodness for that.