Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Can the Minister clarify whether the carry-over amount is included in this capital budget? I believe he said it was going to be included in the supplemental, so this $324 million is all new money? It doesn't include any carry-overs? Can you first confirm that? Thank you.

You're absolutely correct, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Now, can you answer Mr. O'Reilly's question? Mr. O'Reilly asked what the issues were in getting the money out. Minister.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I did state before one of the first things that I did to try to monitor this is to put the departments on notice, my colleagues on notice, that I will be monitoring this. I'm sure, as we gather the information, we'll have a fairly good indication of why some of the projects are late. Maybe the specifications haven't been done. It could be a number of different reasons. I can't sit here and start to speculate on what some of those reasons are.

I have made a commitment that we would monitor this a lot closer to make sure that the money that's been allocated goes out the door. If there's a bottleneck somewhere or there's an issue with the department, itself, or whoever is administering the contracts on their behalf, then I think we'll have an opportunity through the monitoring to identify that and take steps to address it. If it's resources capacity, then we'll have to deal with it at that particular time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now that the clock has almost run out, I do have some bigger-picture concerns with the capital budget that I think have been articulated by some of my colleagues, as well. There's an overwhelming focus on roads again, and I understand that some of this is related to federal funding, but I notice, and I've said in the House, that our sister territory Nunavut has found ways to support public housing to a greater extent than we have through federal infrastructure funding. I'm concerned about the local government funding gap, the municipal funding gap, that we had identified over a number of years and how much progress we're going to be making on that, and I'll raise that at the appropriate time.

I've heard about the lack of tourism investment in Yellowknife and in Tuktoyaktuk. I think that's all I can squeeze in, Mr. Chair, for now, but I appreciate the commitment that the Minister has made on tracking and reporting on carry-overs, and I hope that he can find a way to share that on a regular basis with us on this side of the House. In future, capital estimates, if he can find a way to document compliance with the fiscal responsibility policy, as well, that would be helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Next, I have Mr. McNeely.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too support this capital budget, and think about the remote area connections with the capital investments, keeping in mind the receiver of the capital budget allowances for these various initiatives would be the creation of income for various families that are looking forward to some of these projects coming on stream, and also being mindful that this government has exhausted and created a partnership with the federal counterparts. So it's good to see that. I'm also mindful that it's hard to be a solution-provider to anything and everything when you consider the large area we have and the logistical challenges of supporting projects. So, certainly, there's going to be a carry-over. Most areas are seasonally accessible, so, given that principle, it creates carry-over. So, in short, I like the energy that went into this large capital initiative, and I look forward to going into the detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm trying to be as short as possible because the Minister has heard a number of our colleagues talk here. So my big concern is the municipal funding shortfall. We're talking about $20-million-plus, and that seems to be a huge issue that we still haven't dealt with. If we're having this carry-over year after year after year, maybe that's something that we need to be looking at as putting funding into the municipal governments to help them deal with their capital needs and issues as we move forward. So that should be addressed.

I do have some concerns with housing and some of the challenges there, but, again, I know it's just information here, but I'd just like to make sure the Minister is aware of that. At that point, I guess my other big issue is the infrastructure, and we talk roads, but again, it's the isolated, small communities in the riding I represent that need some work done, and, when I'm talking about work, we're not talking about chipsealing; we're talking about being able to utilize the roads. That's what I'm hearing from the communities. I hear from three in particular, Jean Marie, Sambaa K'e, and Nahanni Butte. They're just trying to access, whether it's seasonal or all year round, and they need some work done to those roads, so I'm hoping that the government can look at that and move forward.

I do have to give the government credit. This is the biggest capital investment that seems to have hit the Assemblies here, so I do have to thank the government for looking at that, but, again, there are some shortfalls in some areas, and I'll have questions for the particular departments as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. There's no one further on the list, so I will give the Minister up to ten minutes to respond to the general comments. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee for some of their comments, and we hear their concerns. Members are absolutely correct. This is probably the biggest capital budget this territory has ever seen, and, with some of the carry-over, I think that increases it even more. This is much-needed investment in a territory where things are very slow now, and we see the importance of a lot of the capital investment across the Northwest Territories.

There were some concerns with the money that was going into roads, but you have to be without a road to understand the importance of having a road. I think we have to look no further than the ITH and the benefit it has brought to the people up there.

If you can leverage $0.75 on the dollar and use $0.25 of your own dollar to move your projects ahead, I think that is a wise use of money. That allows us as a government to reinvest some of the money that we may have invested into these particular initiatives somewhere else. I was just asking Mr. Kalgutkar what our normal capital budget was, and I think it is in around $200 million, maybe just under $200 million. With the significant amount of the investment we have had in the federal government, we would be able to increase that to $325 or $340 million. It is a welcome investment. We hear the concerns of the Members.

The carry-overs, I spoke a bit to the carry-overs before. Building new housing, I am sure the Minister of Housing has heard your concerns. You will have more discussion when you get into the housing information item. There is some challenge with the housing.

I think the Member for Nahendeh raised the investment in the community money. The $29 million we are investing into this particular capital budget is an increase from the $27 million in capital infrastructure money that has been part of the community budget, I think, almost since the new deal in 2007. That number has finally gone up this year. It is $29 million.

The funding shortfall that Members speak of is more on the operations side. There is an opportunity for the communities. My understanding is that they are able to use five or up to 10 percent of the infrastructure money to help deal with some of the operation challenges because communities are much appreciative of the investment in infrastructure.

One of the things in my time as Minister of MACA that I heard from the NWT Association of Communities is: they have all this capital money. They are putting it toward a lot of their capital projects. On the operations side is where they were concerned with so many capital projects coming on stream. They didn't feel they had sufficient operation. There was a lot of work done a few years ago to try and address that. I think in the last couple of operations budgets, we've made investments into trying to address the funding gap. It is still a large gap. There was a lot of good work that was done, I think, at the end of the 16^th Legislative Assembly.

On the Child and Family Services, you heard the Minister say before, in responding to questions, that they were looking at bringing forward their work, doing some work right now. They are looking forward to bringing a proposal to the FMB to see if there is more money that could be had for some of the programs that they offer.

Energy projects, I appreciate the comments from the Member from Yellowknife North. There is a lot of money being invested into energy projects, and that is the way of the future. One of the things in my time here, in the Assembly, and having travelled all across the Northwest Territories, visited every community, my time as Minister of Housing, I had an opportunity to visit a lot of the local housing authorities, and I was always quite impressed with the proactive steps they were taking and already starting to invest into a lot of energy projects.

We were dealing with climate change and the high cost of living before it was big news. We were dealing with it. Now that it is out there, we have been able to leverage a lot of investment into many of the projects that we want to see go forward. I know our folks have been doing a lot of work out on the front lines, trying to address it and dealing with climate change and houses getting awfully close to the bank. The federal investment is quite welcome.

I think it was the Member from Yellowknife Centre who talked about such a large infrastructure budget and the fact that we may not have the capacity or the labour force to do it. In some of the work that we have done, we are thinking that this has the potential to create up to 1,200 jobs, I think is the figure I have seen somewhere. Of course, there is going to be concern with such large infrastructure projects. Some may be awarded to firms from the south. We don't know that. Some may have to bring in some people from the south. Hopefully, like a lot of people, they fall in love with the North and just decide to stay here.

If you notice, a lot of this money is in the regions and in some of the smaller communities where we would like them to take advantage of the local labour force that they have in the communities, which would be a benefit. Again, I use the Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway for an example because that created close to 600 jobs. Eighty-five percent of those jobs were people from the Beau-Del and other parts of the Northwest Territories.

I have seen the fact that income support payments had gone down and housing rent collections had gone up. That, I think, was just a benefit of having that project go ahead. Now, you see. I talked to folks from Tuktoyaktuk a lot up in Inuvik. They drive in and they are very pleased with the road and the benefits that it has brought to them. As I said before, you have to go without a road to appreciate the value that a road brings to your area. If we can use federal money to help leverage $0.75, if I can use $0.75 of your money and put in $0.25 of my own to buy something, why not? It is just good business, and it is beneficial.

There were a number of other areas that were touched on. I hope I responded to most of the major issues that were raised or all the issues that were raised. Again, we do have a very significant capital budget. I believe at this time, it is a much needed investment with the economy slowing down in some parts of the Northwest Territories and where the work that is come from the government through the capital budget would be fairly welcome. I think I have addressed a lot of the concerns.

As we go into each department's capital budget, I am sure Members will have more detailed questions that the Minister of that particular department will be in a better position to answer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Committee, we have agreed to, first, consider the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. I will thank the witness for joining us. Sergeant-at-Arms, you may escort the witness from the Chamber. Sergeant-at-Arms, you may escort the witnesses back into the Chamber. Committee, we have before us Minister McLeod but this time in his role as the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Minister would you please introduce your witnesses to the House?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right, I have Dr. Joe Dragon, deputy minister of Environment and Natural Resources. To my left, I have the well-dressed Dennis Marchiori, director of Corporate Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Committee, Department of Environment and Natural Resources begins on page 16 of the Capital Estimates. As always, we will defer departmental total until after consideration of the activity summaries, the first of which can be found on page 18, Environmental Protection and Waste Management. If committee has comments or questions about this item or the associated information item on the next page, now is the time to get those out. Seeing none, I will call this item. Environment and Natural Resources, Environmental Protection and Waste Management, infrastructure investments, $140,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Please turn to page 20, Forest Management. There is an associated information item on page 21. Comments or questions? Seeing none, I will call this item. Environment and Natural Resources, forest management, infrastructure investments, $1,149,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Please turn to page 22, water management and monitoring. There is an information item on page 23. Comments or questions? Seeing none, I will call the item. Environment and Natural Resources, water management and monitoring, infrastructure investments, $125,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Wildlife, on page 24. There is an information item on page 25. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a basic question I am trying to get a little bit of an understanding on. We see in here a couple of line items with regard to some new patrol vehicles. Is it possible for the department, maybe, to just give us a little explanation on how they undertake their fleet management and describe for us a little bit about how the life cycle of vehicles is managed, in this instance, by the department of ENR, but even in the general context would be appreciated. I am just trying to understand the degree of the fleets that we use in our departments and to what extent we are rotating them out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Dr. Dragon.