Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few comments I want to make about the budget. I will, no doubt, have specific questions and comments when we get to various departments, but I have a number of sort of overview comments that I would like to make.

I think at the outset I want to appreciate that, as the Finance Minister and the department have told us a number of times, we have huge unmet infrastructure needs and the government is doing its best to try and meet those needs. I think my difficulties lie in where the money is allocated. I don’t necessarily agree with the budget that we have before us.

I think what struck me most, in considering the budget, is the size of the budget for the Department of Transportation compared to the rest of the departments and compared to the total size of the budget. Within the department itself it’s a $90 million or so budget and $70 million is going towards one project. We have a huge number of roads which need either rehabilitation, or we need new roads and we are spending, in my mind, an exorbitant amount of money on one project.

I do have some difficulties particularly in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment where we are spending what I consider to be a paltry amount of money, $3.7 million out of a total budget of $222 million, almost $223 million, and we’re spending just a little less than $4 million on our education infrastructure. From my perspective, particularly for my community, there are a number of schools in Yellowknife which should be receiving money for renovations or renewals or retrofits. Sissons School is one, which was certainly part of the capital plan a few years ago and now is no

longer on the capital plan and isn’t for the foreseeable future. Mildred Hall School had renovations a number of years ago and has yet to have two or three parts of that project completed. That also is nowhere in this budget and is nowhere for the foreseeable future. William McDonald School is a school which is soon to be due for a retrofit, and it’s not anywhere that I can see as well.

So the amount of money that we’re putting into schools is definitely not enough and there are a number of schools in small communities which are well beyond their best before date and need to be renovated or expanded, and they are certainly not in this particular budget either. So those, in terms of education, I have some real major concerns with the amount of money we’re spending and with the projects which are not in that budget.

Aurora College is another one that is basically nowhere on the horizon. Members have spoken a lot about the need for a stand-alone campus for Aurora College in Yellowknife. There’s nothing in this budget to indicate that we’re getting anywhere close to seeing that project come to fruition.

In terms of Health and Social Services, I have one major concern, and that’s the retrofit, the renovation/expansion of Stanton Hospital. It is noted in the budget, but the amount of money that is in the budget is not an amount of money that is going to get us anywhere close to starting that kind of a renovation. I mean, we’ve heard numbers anywhere from $100 million to $400 million for this particular project, and it’s necessary. The hospital is full to capacity and beyond capacity. It needs to be expanded and it needs to be retrofitted so we can provide health services to our residents in up-to-date facilities as opposed to facilities that were built 25 and 30 years ago. Those health facilities weren’t built for the kind of health services that we provide right now in this day and age. So I have a really big concern that we have nothing concrete to tell us when the Stanton project is going to be started, when we’re going to start construction, how we’re going to finance it. I know it’s a big project, but I’m telling the Minister it’s a concern for me.

Also under Health, I think the money is there, I can’t quite remember, I think it’s hidden, but I want to see support for the proposal from Avens for long-term care for all of our NWT seniors. This may be a facility that is located in Yellowknife, but they service seniors throughout the territory. Their proposal is well thought out. It’s based on good research, which indicates we’re going to be well behind the eight ball in spaces for our seniors in a very short time and it’s a project that this government needs to get behind and I don’t see that in the Health budget.

Other than that, I appreciate the focus on deferred maintenance in the Capital Asset Retrofit Program. We’re still putting money into that and I think that is

a good thing. Deferred maintenance is something on which we spend a great deal of money and I know it’s for older buildings and I would hope that for newer buildings, as they come into service, that we make sure we maintain them on a daily, monthly, yearly basis so that we don’t fall behind and have to do deferred maintenance in 20 years’ time. I’d appreciate a comment from the Minister on that. If our focus going forward is to keep our buildings up to date as much as possible, that’s what I think we should be doing at the same time that we’re trying to do all the maintenance that we’ve deferred for years and years on our older buildings.

The last comment I want to make has to do with Municipal and Community Affairs and the infrastructure contributions that go to our communities. It has remained the same for quite a few years. I don’t know how many, but certainly for as long as I’ve been here. More and more our communities are taking on more and more infrastructure. As they get the responsibilities devolved to them, they also take over buildings and buildings that are infrastructure. They, therefore, need more money to deal with those buildings, to do maintenance on those buildings, to keep them in good working order. So I want to encourage the government and MACA to make sure that… It’s not coming this year, I see that from the budget, but I would hope in the budget for ‘15-16 that we will see an increase to the infrastructure contributions for our communities. Thanks, Madam Chair.