Thank you, Mr. Chair. Once again, we are very pleased to hear that the Member has recognized that the capital process is improved and it’s working a lot better. The New Deal, of course, has changed the way we do business and our relationship with the community governments. It’s given the communities more responsibility and it’s also given them a lot more freedom and flexibility to invest in projects that they see fit. This was an issue that we heard for many years historically, about the inability of communities to decide what was their priority.
At the time of the New Deal coming into play, the communities would receive $17 million collectively, and that was reviewed and it was decided at that time that we would increase the dollars up to a $28 million budget. There have been a lot of good projects, as the Minister of MACA will report to you, and things are ongoing. The community is now part of the New Deal to develop long-term plans, sustainable plans. We are looking at a lot of projects that are coming forward; and very good ones, I have to add. We do review the O and M on a regular basis. The capital is something that has been reviewed. At this point we haven’t increased that number, but it is something that we can review to see if that is still a sustainable amount of money for the communities. We have not heard directly back from any of the communities that it wasn’t enough. However, having said that, there are probably communities that are going to say there’s never going to be enough.
The employment rates, of course, as the Member has indicated, are very important. It is important for us as a government to invest in all our communities so that there is job creation. That was something that we were very mindful of as we started with the 16th Assembly as a whole. We knew that the
economy was really in a slump. Oil and gas, exploration and diamond mines were all reducing activity. We made a decision to invest a lot of money in the area of capital. I think it is really demonstrated that it has helped a lot of the communities. Most of the communities have projects that are ongoing. Most of the communities have invested their own dollars that they have
received through the New Deal on projects. Housing, of course, through the Housing Trust has invested an historical high in the area of housing, with the construction of 700 houses and many repairs.
The winter road to Lutselk’e has been discussed a number of times before. Right now it is not part of our inventory, and we did look at it several governments ago to see the benefit of trying to bring a lot of the freight that was planned for. I think it was the arena that was being completed at the time. We looked at the cost and compared it to the use of a barge, and the barge system was a lot cheaper for us. I recognize that there has been one time that a road was constructed way back. There were certainly a lot of challenges, along with huge costs, and having to deal with safety issues such as pressure ridges, blow overs and just trying to keep the road open on the huge lake that is needed for a winter road to that community.
I would have to see what the need is for a request to put washrooms in the water treatment plant. Most of our facilities are in close proximity to the communities and other community facilities. I am not sure if there is a real requirement. This is the first I have heard of it. We will raise that issue. I am sure the Minister of MACA is listening.
The Deferred Maintenance is really a program that is, again, producing good results. The deferred maintenance across Canada is a huge issue. We are no different. We have had the ability to reduce our deferred maintenance by a considerable amount. It is a program that we need to have ongoing as facilities come up for review and are identified. That will keep going.
The school in Lutselk’e that the Member has raised, I indicated before that it is in the planning study right now and it is earmarked for this coming year. Those will give us better direction as to what the next steps will be, whether it is going to be retrofit, renovations or replacement. It will have to wait for those results.
The Highway No. 6 work has really been going well. We have had some good feedback from the community. The community has been satisfied with the way work has been going. This highway has been raised as an issue by the community for quite a few years. The work moving forward is really well received. However, as the Member has indicated, it needs to continue and we are working on doing so. We want to be able to, over the next while, completely renovate that road. We do have a plan for the completion, however, it’s dependent on funding, and funding can only be approved by this government on an annual basis. We’ve identified funding for the last little while this past year and we hope to have some money identified for next year. I can’t speak for the next government as to what
they’ll do, so that will be something that will be raised with the Members of the next government.
The ITI parks, I will defer the issue to ITI when they come up for review, along with issues raised regarding home repairs. I think that would be better served raised with the Minister responsible. Thank you.