Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the Capital Estimates for the next year and the next three years I guess we must have fallen off the list. It’s not fair for Nunakput and it’s not fair for Tu Nedhe. All week my Member’s statements have been regarding the elders facility I want to get built in Tuktoyaktuk. We’re not wanting to send our elders away from their homes. It’s simple little things like that.
In Tuk there’s overcrowding in the school. Having to share bathrooms, it’s not right. We’ve got sea cans outside for storage, but then we can build a $130 million super school in Inuvik, where I attended high school. It’s just not fair to us. My people expect to be treated fairly; I expect to get no more and no less for my people. I’m here to almost stir things up today, I guess. I’m not making any friends here.
In Sachs Harbour we’ve got a water truck pump that breaks down. It takes two to three days before parts are flown into the community to get water delivered. That’s not right.
Talking to the monies we are getting for the next three years, I probably couldn’t even buy the insulation for the retrofit at Kam Lake school if it wasn’t for the federal monies that are going in through the Building Canada Fund for my access road. This is not fair.
My people have the highest cost of living in the Northwest Territories. I have elders — I sound like a broken record sometimes in regard to telling you — who have no groceries; families are living from day to day; power bills are too high. After seeing this, oh man, I’ve got to try to get on this list somehow. If it means clawbacks, it’s got to be done.
We’re really busy trying to get on the list for the stuff I am bringing up. I’ll be bringing stuff in the House next week to see if we could put them on the list. Some Ministers’ ridings have got some stuff put on the list for this last year that has been pushed through. Hopefully, I’ll get the same satisfaction of seeing something done.
The Minister said earlier in his statement that the $12 million capital needs for the 20 year assessment has got to be looked at sooner than later. It’s got to be fair. All the money that I’m hearing…. It’s not right; it’s not fair for the people. You’ve got four communities in the Northwest Territories that are like a vacuum for this money, but then the small communities are waiting for handouts. It’s not right.
Like I said, we fell off the list; I’m trying to get back on. We need to meet the needs of my people of Nunakput and be treated fairly on this.