Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know we're -- thank you, Mr. Chair. I know we're in a rush to get to another very important piece of this committee's work, but we do need to -- this is a House of debate, and we should be debating things.

So I never have been a fan of our political process here, and I've never seen a concurrence motion been brought forward by the government House Leader, the Premier, the finance Minister, any Member of Cabinet before. I think that's significant. And I just spoke to my honourable friend next to me, who has served a number of years more than I have, and neither he can remember a time when such concurrence motion's been brought forward by a Minister.

I think that speaks to the fundamental disagreement that some Members of this House have with how we've approached -- how we are approaching our priorities as a government. This -- the committee of accountability and oversight issued a report about the capital estimates with a broader mandate to look at how the priorities -- the four priorities of the government being met, particularly around health care and housing, and ultimately found that the response to date from government was lacking. The finance Minister mentioned this in her closing comments.

What we have been offered in response to those concerns, a commitment to remove derelict units, reviewing rent scales that haven't been looked at in ten years, a three-year notional housing plan worth $150 million, and I should note notional means un -- like costed but unfunded. So it's just a plan that could show what could happen if it was funded.

I don't think that's what we meant as a committee when we said prioritize health care. We wanted houses built. We look to our sister territory in Nunavut. A third of their capital budget is being spent on housing. I'm sure people will say well, they budget differently. But the point is people in Nunavut understand that their government is prioritizing housing. They're building 350 homes. We are building 150 homes, or doors I should say. We need to do a better job. We need to do a better job on housing. We need to do a better job on health care and a whole bunch of other files, but to narrow it down to those two, the two most pressing issues, the top priorities of this Assembly, is what this committee was trying to urge the government to do. The actions that have been promised are not sufficient enough. We need some deliverables that we can take back home to our ridings that matter to people.

Members recommended things like shift premiums for nurses and health care professionals, minimum contract lengths, 500 homes were kicked around at one point. We were offering tons of ideas to try to get something concrete out there so people know we're making a big bold action. When I talk to health care professionals in my riding, they are used to the talk, they are used to the town halls, the employee engagement surveys, but they're not used to action. And that's what they're saying; that's why they're so deformalized. It's a lot of talk, a lot of strategies, a lot of planning. But they want to see something. And we haven't provided it as a government yet. We're on our one-year mark, and we still haven't provided it.

So we don't make the declaration that we can't support capital lightly. We understand that they're different things, that it is not the same as an operations and maintenance budget. But the point was this was our next opportunity to speak to the -- to speak to finances. And in any other government, that kind of lack of support would be akin to a confidence motion. And I think Canadians and -- well, Northerners and Canadians are well aware of what the consequences of that are with the situation in Ottawa right now. If the House does not have confidence in government then there's an election, in most places except here.

So when we made that declaration, it was an announcement that we lack confidence in how we're moving, we need to course correct, we desperately need to course correct. Because that's what we're hearing from our constituents. And I am not satisfied that we have done that. I am not satisfied that we are making significant investments in health care or housing. I think we're doing the -- I think we're taking a status quo approach with a commitment to try harder. And I appreciate the effort. I appreciate that we have to do planning, that there's been, you know, units and ADMs assigned, and those resources brought to bear but, again, it's more talk, it's more planning. We need some big commitments upfront, so people know things are going to get better. That's why we're here at the end of the day, to make things better, to fix problems. So it was not -- it was not a -- it's not theater to say we're going to -- we don't support the capital budget. And I think Members may -- I mean, we'll see how the end vote -- how the votes end up today, and I'm sure Members will have things to say. I'm sure some Members will change their tune from that initial report. But I hope we all appreciate the significance of where we're at and how far along this road we've come.

If we're going to make this government work, then we all need to be speaking the same language, and we all need to be prioritizing the same things and understanding how to prioritize the same things. I don't think we're there yet. And saying no to the capital budget is not saying no to all these infrastructure projects which are important. I know they're important. I know they're important in many people's ridings. It's to send a very strong message that we desperately need to course correct or we can't get on with the regular business of supply that governments do. We can't get on with governing until we solve this problem and course correct. That was the point of this message. I know it hasn't been lost on our constituents. I know we've been talking about it at length. But we do need to do better. And we need to deliver something tangible, something real, something that shows people that we are listening to them. I do not believe we've achieved that with the commitments made to our report, and as a result I will not be supporting this budget. Thank you.