Thank you, Mr. Speaker. "We are the prisoners." Mr. Speaker, those are words spoken to me by my constituents who live next to the North Slave Correctional Facility. Over the summer months, they have been bothered by frequent noise late into the evening, and almost direct interaction with inmates, only a stone's throw away from their backyards, Mr. Speaker: catcalls from the inmates at their children and living in concern of a perceived unsafe situation, especially after last year's incident where an inmate escaped the facility.

Now, I know the Minister and his department have been diligent at responding to these concerns, with the construction of the extension of the current perimeter fence that has begun during the week of September the 11th and will be completed in another week or so. Now, if everything goes according to plan, this six-foot extension should discourage individuals from unintentionally crossing onto the private property of residents, while also creating a certain degree of additional privacy for residents. With this, I am sure my constituents will be very happy.

What does not make them happy, Mr. Speaker, and certainly also does not make me happy, is that the tender for the installation of the additional barriers needed to address the security flaw that enabled the escape of an NSCC inmate has been cancelled. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre brought this up earlier this week, and largely, this is due to the fact that the bids that were received were well in excess of the appropriated budget.

Now, I am very concerned that we are only hoping to address this situation. Those are the words of the Minister; "hoped" that it gets addressed. This is a public safety concern, and my residents have a right to be concerned about their safety and their level of comfort in a residential neighbourhood that this government had a part in creating.

I hope that the Minister takes this situation seriously and will do everything possible to ensure that these security improvements are put in place. I will have questions for him later today, and I hope he has the answers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to consider the Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do see that here. There have been delays in this work previously. Is it smooth sailing ahead, or are we going to continue to see delays on this project? Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I would like to ask the Minister: what is the plan for the Prelude Lake Territorial Park boat launch replacement? My understanding is that both the marina and the boat launch have been ongoing for some time. I would like to know when this work will be completed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That information is already public. Is there any reason not to print it here, just for greater transparency of these budget documents? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 67 of MACA's capital infrastructure is a list of communities, and it is related to the community government share of capital formula funding, but there are no dollar amounts listed. Can the Minister explain why that is? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that is part of the issue here, is we need to make sure that that money is going into local projects. Can the Minister commit to working with communities to make sure they are maximizing this investment, I know that that is part of leveraging federal funding, but with our own dollars, and taking a look at those surpluses and seeing if they can be invested in projects for today rather than continuing our economic woes, so to speak?

This kind of infrastructure spending creates growth. It is creating record growth in Canada, as part of increased federal infrastructure investment. It is time this government took that approach, and local community-level spending of infrastructure dollars is the best way to do it. Will the Minister work on getting that money out to the communities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, of the current contribution we make to community-level infrastructure, does that money get spent? Does 100 per cent of that money get spent year on year?

Not to pre-empt this plan, but is this going to be a costed plan that actually has numbers attached to it, or is it an aspirational plan that talks about "support" and "working with" and "capturing" opportunities? Is it a costed plan that is going to actually deliver funds into our communities and get our economy back on track?