Thank you, Madam Chair. The process that the government takes for infrastructure and allocation of funding in the Northwest Territories happens on a government-wide approach. The government goes through this every year and they have community consultations that they go into the communities to explain the process and how they determine allocations. The government then comes back with a base, and other departments assess their own needs for infrastructure, and the government then has a process where the departments compete for the funding. If there are 10 dollars in the pot, the departments compete for those 10 dollars. Plus they also take the concerns of the MLAs here. Every community also may have an influence in the decision-making. Funding is then divvied up and comes to the MLAs and sometimes it doesn’t match the needs of the MLAs on this side. We are happy when we hit the bull’s eye and we say, yes, this project is coming to our community. It’s long overdue.

We also recognize that we have a huge, I don’t know if you’d call it a liability, but we have a huge bill on maintaining our assets. It’s incredible. With what they are doing to catch-up, it’s going to be a while yet, but they’re doing the most critical part. The process that we follow sets out the criteria. The criteria are to look at what funding and infrastructure receives the highest priority. That funding is the protection of people. So I’m going to be questioning the Ministers and departments on their rationale on their funding. Why did this project get approved and this one didn’t? Why isn’t this project receiving some attention, especially in my region where there seems to be a huge increase in the oil and gas activity, and the protection of people on our winter roads, in our communities and some of the infrastructure that needs to happen in regard to the amount of alcohol sales that are being talked about. There was a huge increase we saw from the Northwest Territories Liquor Commission and the increase of purchasing hard liquor in my region seems to be lifting the liquor restriction at the Norman Wells liquor store.

So the main focus for me would be the protection of people, and the government, I think sometimes, in all its goodness, looks at the assets in the communities. I appreciate the continuous message that we need a long-term care facility in the Sahtu. We also need a new wellness centre and I appreciate the government moving on that front. It is slow, but it’s moving. We’ve got different briefing notes of when it’s going to start and when it’s going to conclude. It’s different, but I’m happy. I should knock on wood, I guess, that it’s going to happen this winter. So that I appreciate. That is over 10 years and for infrastructure on the activity in the Sahtu that needs to be really considered because of the increase of activity.

Last year the Minister of Transportation and I drove from Fort Good Hope to Fort Simpson – it’s 700 and some-odd kilometres – and we saw the condition of the winter roads. My information tells me that there were about 2,200 or more big trucks on that winter road for that short period of time. That isn’t going to stop. If Conoco or Shell or MGM is in that area and they want to further examine the potential for the Canol shale play, there’s going to be more traffic on that winter road this year and the following years if they step it up to a production level. So I’m looking forward to some support on this front.

The community of Deline has always pushed for hydro, and there are opportunities to look at how we can best make use of this resource and look at other communities such as possibly helping Norman Wells with their natural gas situation. My people are getting quite concerned about the conversion and the cost of these conversions. Is there any type of support in infrastructure to help

the community of Norman Wells with their conversion?

I still am quite alarmed by the high percentage of core needs for housing in Colville Lake and the issue of TB. Why is TB still an issue in Colville Lake? It seems to be a resurgent theme every so often. Is it because of overcrowding? The high percentage of six or more people in one house is high in the Sahtu. I do appreciate the Minister of Housing coming forward later, on how we’re going to address this issue. I’m looking forward to seeing if that percentage can be dropped. In 2009 it was 70 percent of core need in Colville Lake, and core need is suitability, affordability and the adequacy of a house. That needs to be addressed; otherwise we’ll continue to see cases of TB in the small communities.

I look forward to looking at the infrastructure budget around the recreation areas. Fort Good Hope has asked to look at the existing recreation facility. It’s actually in pretty bad shape. Fort Good Hope has a high crime rate in regard to alcohol-related issues. One of the prevention mechanism factors is to have young people be active and be healthy, and that recreation facility is not being used to its potential. It’s actually falling apart. I was hoping that there would be some movement in this budget, hoping I could speak to it the budget on the issue of getting Fort Good Hope a more suitable recreation centre that people can be proud of and people can use, and maybe that will help us deter the use of alcohol and drugs amongst the young people. We have a high number of young people in the Sahtu region and that’s going to be our target issue for the next couple of years.

I do want to thank the Minister and his staff and the Members for bringing forward this budget so we can have a good discussion in the next couple of weeks.