Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Member for his comments. He raised a number of issues across the North and, of course, in his riding. The capital process in the last while has changed and we are starting to certainly see the benefits of using this process that requires us to follow a number of steps. We are quite satisfied that the changes are positive. The capital process and the capital budget have been really challenged in the last couple of years as we went forward to deliver many projects across the North. A lot of the regional centres have seen fairly large expenditures and large projects go into the communities.

We have also worked quite well with the smaller communities in doing replacement programs and new infrastructure and also infrastructure for alternate energy in communities such as Kakisa and Fort Simpson, and McPherson and Inuvik.

There are a lot of projects the Member has referenced in the budget for planning studies. The school in Nahanni is one, as the Member is aware. We also have other schools that are being looked at and considered, Lutselk’e and others. There is still some work being done for facility condition reports. I think one was down in Trout, and Education has that in their hands now and are reviewing it.

The Department of Transportation still continues to be involved in providing a lot of capital investment. In this coming budget that we will be dealing with on Monday, the budget for transportation is at $60 million with roughly $30 million to $40 million carryover from last year. So it will still be fairly significant and as the Member is aware, we continue to support and do a lot of the renovations and work that needs to be done on Highway No. 7. Everyone is, of course, in agreement that it’s something that will enhance tourism as we improve the quality of this road.

We’re also working in the Member’s riding to work on some of the airport work that needs to be done. The reallocation in Trout is going quite well. The lighting in Nahanni Butte, of course, as the Member

has indicated, has been a concern for some time. We had to find some comfort that putting in the runway lighting, that the training was also there for people doing the maintenance and that these lights are not going to get damaged, because the cost to replace them is quite high.

The Wrigley road is also seeing investment and will continue to do so. This is a stretch of the road that will probably be used quite a bit as the pipeline project goes forward, and, of course, we would continue our discussions with the proponent of the pipeline to ensure the road is of a standard that would withstand the increased traffic flows as this project is in production.

The Fort Simpson hospital is in the planning study. There will be all kinds of opportunity for the community of Fort Simpson, and all the surrounding communities in the region that utilize this facility, to provide input. Consultation is part of our planning study and we also would expect that we would talk to industry to see if there are any concerns or anything that could be flagged as an issue for them as the pipeline project and oil and gas progresses in that area.

Housing will probably be better served if the Minister responsible responds to the concerns regarding the declining funds and the work that he’s doing with CMHC along with other jurisdictions from across Canada to flag that issue. It’s been on the drawing board for some time and I would leave it to him to respond to that. He’s indicated this morning in his statement that there’s been a lot of work, over 700 houses constructed in the last little while and over 1,000 repairs done. So there are considerable things happening with housing, but I would defer those comments to the Minister of the NWT Housing Corporation.

I thank the Member for the issues that he’s brought up. Thank you.