Merci, Monsieur le President. That's a very tough act to follow. I think it's most excited I've seen the Member in the entire Assembly. But I actually agree 100 percent with his analysis. I just tried to make some of those arguments, perhaps a little less vigorously in this House, but bang on. It's absolutely the case with Taltson. I think it's -- it's a good -- it will be a boondoggle if it gets built, just like most other hydro mega projects in this country. So I commend my colleague from Yellowknife North for his vigorous analysis and urge my Cabinet colleagues to make more information about this, and some of the other mega projects, public. Because, quite frankly, these are poor investments. They're not even going to bring northern benefits. You know, these things are just -- we could -- we shouldn't have put them forward as three big projects happening at the same time. They've just raised such unreasonable expectations. Our Ministers go to Ottawa. Ottawa says these guys just can't make up their minds, they don't know what they're doing.
So in any event, Mr. Speaker, I will be voting against this capital budget as I probably have probably the seven or -- other eight ones that I've dealt with in the life of this -- my two terms here because the budgets -- the capital budgets that we are getting from Cabinet just are a reflection of wrong priorities. When we spend more money on roads than we do on housing, wrong priorities. Wrong priorities. We shouldn't be spending more money on these mega projects. They're just not going to go anywhere. If we have to build something, build the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I actually heard even one Cabinet Minister say that in their reply to the Commissioner's address as advice to the next Assembly.
Get realistic. Build one infrastructure project. Do it at a scale and pace where the communities can benefit from it. So stop wasting time. Stop wasting money. Invest in our communities and build real energy self-sufficiency.
So, yeah, this capital budget, again, has the wrong priorities, lack of transparency as my colleague has pointed out, chronic over budgeting. You know, when we have carryovers that are in the -- literally hundreds of millions of dollars from one year to the next, we cannot get the money out the door because we -- for whatever reason, we just -- but that chronic over budgeting means we have to run an operating surplus to help pay for the infrastructure. Sometimes it's -- some of the dollars come from the feds. That's great. Sometimes we got to match 25 percent, whatever. But it means we have to run an operating surplus, which means we're shortchanging programs and services. We're not meeting people's basic human needs in the Northwest Territories because we're trying to spend it on mega projects that are not going to go anywhere.
So, again, Mr. Speaker, I will be voting against this capital budget. I would commend my colleague from Yellowknife North for his dismantling of the Taltson boondoggle. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.