Mr. Speaker, the infrastructure program has been debated in this Assembly when that budget went through the House in the fall in looking at that. To draw a comparison, for example, the Inuvik process at schools that was on the books since 1997 have finally been put on there. There are two schools delayed for a number of years and moved ahead. We have the Hay River riding over the five-year period will be $74 million. We have the Sahtu as well. It will be $49 million. It is spread out through the North. The problem is when we have to replace existing facilities. That became the challenge. In the past years when the government reduced its budget, it went after the capital program and put us, as Minister of Public Works, in a capital deficit where we did not replace facilities when they came due or did mid-life retrofit, and that has now added to the burden of replacing our existing infrastructure on the ground. We are trying to play catch-up to that as well as try to make new investments. There has been significant dollars that have been put into Municipal and Community Affairs’ budget that transfers directly to communities now. I am told that they monitor that quite closely. I am not aware at this time that those communities are in deficits. If they are, that is something that would be reviewed by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.
Floyd Roland on Question 216-16(3): Capital Infrastructure Investments In Small Communities
In the Legislative Assembly on February 26th, 2009. See this statement in context.
Question 216-16(3): Capital Infrastructure Investments In Small Communities
Oral Questions
February 25th, 2009
Inuvik Boot Lake
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