Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to say again that the needs in this department, with regard to the infrastructure needs…and certainly being reminded by the Minister of Finance as to the amount of funding we have, and putting the funding where it makes sense and it makes a good business case. I just want to remind the Minister and his officials here of the support that is going to be needed in forthcoming years in the Sahtu region.

I want to ask the Minister in regard to the support for families, single parents. There is a great deal of opportunity coming up in the Sahtu that would greatly appreciate support in the department for early childhood daycare homes. I understand that currently there was one in Norman Wells that closed down, and Norman Wells is a pretty busy place where both parents are working due to the high cost of living in that community, and now they’re going to face more pressure because of the issue of conversion of the energy source they will be needing in that community.

I’m looking at this department in this capital planning process to see where the single parents and the families can get help in the communities in the Sahtu. If there is a plan out there that would look at the Sahtu communities, to look at seeing what type of requirements and criteria are needed to bring in daycare homes for our communities. I stated, sometime in my Member’s statement, that there are employment rates that are quite low in regard to people working in Sahtu communities other than Norman Wells, and that there is a high percentage of families that are headed by single parents. Even in Norman Wells both parents are

working to support their homes and there is really no support for them in regard to daycare types of programs and homes. So I’m hoping that the Minister would bring forth a type of plan in terms of partnerships, where we could have daycare homes in our communities. That’s one point.

The second point, and my last point, is looking for this government here to look at the emerging need of a Sahtu technical institute. Start planning for our region. Through the combination of various meetings of organizations and this government here, I believe that a small Sahtu technical institute can be established within the life of this government, and that we can see where our people could take some additional specialized training, or just general training in heavy equipment mechanics trade that is going to match the needs of the oil and gas companies that are coming into the Sahtu, or the supporting services. These companies have to support the oil and gas industry and also support the communities in electrical, plumbing, pipefitters or painters, so we need to start building that type of infrastructure.

It would be good to hear from this government that this department will look at some of this much needed infrastructure that could happen in the Sahtu. For the last 10 years we have received some of the infrastructure, but also in the last 10 years we have sort of seen a – I’m not too sure how to call it – a zigzag in terms of infrastructure. Today we know that we’re very early in the stages of developing the Sahtu, and that’s all because of the oil and gas exploration and the potential that could be there to develop it further into something that is quite astounding in regard to taking the oil out of the Sahtu.

I’d like to ask the Minister what infrastructure phases that he can start in regard to building these types of buildings or places in our region. In the past we didn’t have that, and that was understandable, but today it’s a different story. When you have 11 parcels that are taken up and over $600 million committed just for the exploration, that tells you that there’s something happening there. When you have one company spend over $40 million on an all-weather road out in the bush, that tells you that there’s something going on there, and so I hope that is some strong indication to what potentially could happen in the Sahtu. That’s what I’m looking forward to in this infrastructure budget with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

I’ll leave it at that there and hope that the Minister would come forward in the future, within the life of this government, to demonstrate that yes, he’s heard us and is working towards it within our cycle and our plan. We don’t have much time left in this government here to see any type of really significant changes. I’m hoping for these two; that

would mean a lot for the people of the Sahtu. Thank you.