Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was going to save my comments when we went back to the overall, but I want to follow up on my colleague's questions from Yellowknife North.
And it's kind of alarming that we do have a $93 million surplus. And I know the Member from Yellowknife North asked if there was a capacity issue getting this work completed. And I know, you know, living in Inuvik, I know there is often -- it's difficult in getting contractors to do work. I know a lot of the work that has to be done is work that's beyond the scope that our typical housing maintainers would do. But the fact remains there's still 16 units in Inuvik that are still waiting for repairs to be done and, as the Minister knows, we have an extensive waitlist in Inuvik for those units had they been repaired so people can get in them. And I guess my comment is, I mean, the fact is we know it's getting more expensive to build in the North. It's got more expensive in the past five years. We know during COVID, it was very expensive, and we know that even post-COVID it's still -- it's come down but still certainly significance. So, I guess, my comment would be, I mean, is the department confident in the due diligence they're doing in budgeting and getting this -- you know, ensuring that, you know, when they're putting out tenders or RFPs to get these units either repaired or some of this major work done, that they're confident that they're keeping up with where costs are, particularly in the regions further North? Obviously trucking with the carbon tax, with the cost of fuel, we know things are getting more expensive, so I just want to make sure that -- you know, that the department is confident that they're doing whatever they can. Because $93 million is an alarming number. I'm sure they appreciate the $2 to $3 million worth of interest they get on having that cash in the bank, but it certainly doesn't help the residents that are waiting on a waitlist to get into these units. So just maybe a comment on that, Mr. Chair.