Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to be genuine in respecting and appreciating the department's efforts. I think they undertook some really good work, with the NWTAC and some community members and what-have-you, back in 2014 when we underwent the evaluation that ultimately identified this gap.
I am convinced, and this is going to be more of a comment, that the government, given the pressures that we have on our budget and the stretch dollars that we have, that we really, in fact, are never going to be able to overcome this, because the demands for capital projects within the communities is, as was mentioned, growing, but then, so is the rate of inflation on all of this stuff. Based on what allocations we have available and how all of us in this House realize how tight this budget is year-over-year, I just don't ever foresee how we are going to remove this infrastructure gap or this funding gap.
It is my belief that the only way we are going to be able to do that is if we -- and I will be raising this in a number of different ways over the next little while, but the Territorial Formula Financing agreement that we have with the federal government has to be renegotiated with, and it is with the purview of these kinds of shortfalls in mind that we have to renegotiate that. I don't think, on a per capita basis, that we need to request more money, but we certainly need to give consideration to, when we generate our own-source revenues, that it doesn't get clawed back by the federal government. They need to recognize that these are the kinds of gaps that we need to fill and that that is a process that we have to go through and have a heart-to-heart.
I recognize that TFF, I think, is up for review in 2019. Although the federal government has given early indicators that they are going to maintain status quo, I would argue that that is not satisfactory, and this is a primary example as to why we have to renegotiate that, or we will never fulfill this gap. Those are my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.