Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I will be talking about an urgent matter for the City of Yellowknife. I want to discuss the federal funding for the public transit system, or what I should be calling the stalled federal funding transit initiative that was promised by the federal government to the City of Yellowknife. It is about time that the Minister of MACA remembers that he works for big communities and small communities equally. The federal government has recognized how important a strong and sustainable public transit system is and they have, to their credit, even introduced a tax deduction that highlights that. So where is the City of Yellowknife's transit money?
I have addressed this issue in previous Member's statements with no answers, although I continue to be very hopeful. I am concerned about the federal transit funding promised to the City of Yellowknife, Mr. Speaker. In addition to the funding available under the New Deal for cities and communities, the federal government was going to make over $1 million available for existing NWT public transit systems, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, this money has been available for some time and still the City of Yellowknife has not received a dime or even a bus token on this matter. An initial announcement was made on June 1, 2005, which further underscores how this issue has been stalled by the Minister of MACA. Further, Mr. Speaker, B.C. and Ontario have been spending their money since September 2005, and still we have no idea of where this money is and what the Minister is planning to do with it. This money can improve our transit ridership in Yellowknife and decrease our greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging more people to use public transit.
Yellowknife is a growing city. Our economy depends on a good transit system, Mr. Speaker. I would like to see some support from our MACA Minister to deliver on that money. Mr. Speaker, if you want to encourage people to ride the bus, you need to have buses. If you want buses, you need the money that was promised to get them on the street. So, Mr. Speaker, I have to remind the Minister; what is he doing? Is he re-engineering the definition that promised the City of Yellowknife transit money, or what is he doing? I don't know. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I will have questions for the Minister of MACA yet again, who is supposed to represent big and small communities equally. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause