Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, the new deal started in 2007. So what was happening before that it was the government of the Northwest Territories were making decisions on what infrastructure was going to go into the communities. The new deal allowed the communities to make decisions. I fully support that. I think the communities make the good decisions based on the evidence they had.
In 2013, the department wrote a letter to the municipality saying you need to look at some of these decisions; here's a potential future problem that could happen. These things happen. We understand that. We, as government, make decisions and then we look at it and go whoops, that wasn't right but we're stuck with the decision we made. I respect the decisions that council made. However, the Member has asked me to go to the other departments and get money for stuff that -- if I do that, there is -- I have to do that for 33 -- or 32 other communities. There's priorities and needs there in the communities.
Another thing is we don't have leftover money to give to projects like that. I have reached out to the federal government. We continually reach out to the federal government to have those conversations. We support the community by having our staff in there. 40 years ago, the lines weren't a problem. They are a problem now. We're having this situation now. That's why you budget and we do things that way. And the department is more than willing to work with the community to deal with this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.