Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Infrastructure. When I say that word, one's mind often turns to roads and buildings, airports, and bridges; but really, Infrastructure encompasses so much more than that. It is the pipes that bring you water and carry away your waste, the fibre optic line that allows you to instantly communicate or watch that football game from Europe, the solid waste facility where you take your garbage, or the water treatment plant that provides your community with fresh, clean water to drink.
One only needs to look at the budgets associated with the GNWT's departments to understand the sheer enormity of the Department of Infrastructure and all they do for our people and the territory. During the initial stages of COVID, this was the department that had over 60 percent of its employees continue on at their work sites while everyone else was sent home. The department that completed the community resupply, despite the challenges of a far from normal year and ensured that the heat and ventilation stayed on in our buildings. They ferried us around, kept our planes in the air, and patrolled our highways.
Yesterday, in the Committee of the Whole, we heard a lot about the infrastructure gap in our communities, how our hamlets and towns are in desperate need of funding to build new fire halls and recreation centres, roads, and waste facilities. However, what good is building new infrastructure if we are not properly caring for what we already have? Everywhere you go in this territory, the eye is met with crumbling, aging buildings and roads in need of repair and what appears to be very little money or political will to address this issue. Every year that we fail to provide the funds to upkeep and properly maintain our assets, the costs for repair and replacement will exponentially increase. To allow this to continue is negligent and speaks to poor fiscal management. Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure at the appropriate time. Thank you.