Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to ask the Minister when they are looking at new infrastructure such as the office or warehouse or any other assets in the communities, I notice that in some of the ones in my communities that I visit they certainly could do with some upgrades or some office and storage facilities or just expand on their operations. Some of these buildings have been built some time ago. Some are a bit older and they certainly could be improved. Mind you, we’re all aware of the limited dollars that the government has, and each department has their wish list and only a certain number of projects get put on to the infrastructure plans.
I want to ask the Minister, when they’re looking at the community operations such as Colville Lake, they certainly could use an office. Right now there’s a patrol cabin that’s a very nice patrol cabin, and that office there, I guess, is used by many of the fine officers that we have in the Sahtu. They don’t really have a garage there. I think it’s a little warehouse that they have in Colville Lake. Even in Deline their building is again operated from an older
building. It’s a log building. They don’t really have any place where they can put some of their personnel or some of their equipment. I’ve been to Good Hope’s District Office. They have an office there that can also be looked at in the future for some renovating or to get a new office there.
The department operates a number of patrol cabins in and around the Sahtu. I’ve been to the Kelly Lake patrol cabin. It certainly could be given some attention on some of the upgrades to that area. That cabin is used quite a lot by firefighters in the summer and there are a couple of cabins that the people also use in my region. There’s one at Willow Lake and an abandoned cabin on the Keele River in the Mackenzie Mountains.
I ask the department, amongst their other projects, when they look at infrastructure, how do we get some attention to these types of buildings that we have or need in the Sahtu region. Mind you, there’s only a certain amount of dollars that are being spent and we’re competing with, as Mr. Bromley has indicated, an IT project such as the wildlife management information system where we’re putting some dollars to that project. I guess I need to know if the electronic information system now is more important than some of the infrastructure that we could use to help our personnel on the ground. Colville Lake certainly could use some support to get some of their basic needs met. Thank you.