Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do want to speak to the letter that was sent, much of which was ultimately read into the House.

Mr. Chair, that letter was very lengthy and spoke at many points about wanting to see a plan, see a cultural shift, to see leadership change, then in other respects to see a plan, again, to see more changes in policy, to see changes in procedure, to see action plans, to see ambitious planning, and so on and so forth. That's not all that was there, Mr. Chair. I certainly don't want to leave that impression either. But that is a lot of requests for different plans, different processes, different policies, different approaches to leadership. And, Mr. Chair, it was our effort in engaging in the conversations that we did to respond to that with proposals for leadership change, with proposals for policy change, and with an approach that could lead to the culture shift that would then accomplish all of what's in these letters and what all of us here want to see.

Mr. Chair, there's millions of dollars pouring in to the territory for housing. It is not all coming to the housing corporation of the Northwest Territories. Now, that said, the housing corporation in the last several years has been successful in seeing significant, tens of millions of investment, come in. The federal funding cycle does not always align well to our funding cycle, and so I'm not in a position to sit here and say that we can remove the word notional from the $50 million commitment that we expect to be able to make. I don't want to sit here and pretend that I have an answer for that. I do believe that we'll be in a position to spend $50 million. And, in fact, I believe the housing corporation will probably be in a position to spend more. But, Mr. Chair, it's not fair or appropriate for me to simply say, no problem, and hope it's fine when I can't actually say exactly where it's going to come from. I do think it will find that money. There's engagement happening not only from the housing corporation but from the Department of Infrastructure and the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs with our federal counterparts to see these problems addressed. And some of the offers that we've made and the discussions that we've had around changes in leadership and changes in approach involve creating better systems for engagement with MLAs. One such -- for example, just ways by which we can bring one another together, we're all hearing from residents, and we want to make sure that we're doing that in a way that doesn't bring us to the brink of not passing a capital budget which again -- so, really, at that point, Mr. Chair, I'll wrap up with that.

There are projects throughout this capital budget that go to every single community. There are projects in this capital budget that go to small communities. There's projects in the capital budget that will link communities. Everything from transmission lines in Fort Providence, transmission line in Whati, there are housing projects, planning for long-term care facilities, extension of the Inuvik runway. Mr. Chair, I know we've been dealing with this for the last two weeks. At the same time, the conversation here isn't about all of these projects. I realize there is one other priority that people are concerned about, but we aren't going to advance the issue of meeting housing if we can't bring the supplies up on the road, particularly the Mackenzie Valley Highway. We aren't going to be able to connect those houses if they can't be connected to power systems. They are going to struggle if the municipal funding -- the multiple capital funding that is in here doesn't flow to the municipalities who are responsible for water and sewer systems, who are responsible for the waste management systems. It does all need to fit together.

It's a lean plan, Mr. Chair. I get that it's a lean plan. Everyone's heard me stand in the House and say that we have to already increase the borrowing limit. Times are challenging. But, again, the kinds of shifts that we were hoping to make to bring about these policy changes and to move forward in advance of the main estimates, and our hope was one that would respond adequately and allow us to get to a place in the main estimates that shows some of the outcomes of that policy, the policy shift and culture shift that every one of us Members in this House want to see. Thank you, Mr. Chair.