Robert C. McLeod

A lot of the governments across the Northwest Territories have a vision, and we heard from the vision from the folks in Lutselk'e yesterday on 50 years. It was a 50-year vision, a story, and I'll share it today that I noted yesterday was one where it said, a former chief had gone down to Ottawa. They said: "Sign this. We're going to establish a park." The chief says: "I'll go talk to my people first, and we'll think about it." They thought about it for 30 years. That's the vision that they had. They wanted to make sure that they have consulted with their people, and made sure they come up with...

Minister Cochrane.

The GNWT has committed $290,000 annually to the ongoing management of Thaidene Nene. Additionally, as the Member pointed out, they are getting some funding from Canada. These funds will allow the GNT Lutselk'e Dene First Nation, Deninu K'ue First Nation, Yellowknives Dene First Nation, and the Northwest Territories Metis Nation to effectively manage Thaidene Nene for the next four years.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. ECE, my understanding is they work with the communities to identify third-party funding to offset the cost of extra space for childcare. If available, the GNWT provides planning, design, and project management support towards these efforts. They are currently in the process of conducting analysis on options to support capital costs related to childcare in the GNWT, including what role the GNWT should play in the private market, for example, the capital; limited market, for example, in Tuktoyaktuk; and no market, for example in Cold Lake. Communities are being included in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That level of detail, I don't know exactly what the scope of work is going to be in the project. I think that I may have jumped the gun here a bit by pointing out how much money was actually allocated to this particular project, because it doesn't show in the Infrastructure document that we are debating. It shows in some of the substantiation that we have here. I think I jumped the gun a bit there, and maybe giving some people a head start on putting a price together for this particular project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Am I replying to the statements made by all Members or just the Member in particular?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The status of that is they have done a feasibility report on that. New modular gas-generating plant and LNG storage and vaporization facility on the parcel of land outside the downtown core in Fort Simpson. Design basis engineering work has shown that the total project cost would be $13 million. This is much higher than the Inuvik project due to the fact that Fort Simpson is a greenfield project with no existing gas infrastructure. This is one of the infrastructure projects slated for funding under federal infrastructure funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, I believe the Member wanted to ask a question to the table, and I think that we are prepared to answer questions. If the chair chooses, then we will respond to the Member's question.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When they built the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line, I think that we only needed 24 strands in that line to meet our requirements. The Minister of the day said, "How much more would it cost to double it?" They said it wasn't much more, so they doubled it to 48 strands with the anticipation that you have to start thinking about the future. It was going to be less expensive to do it now than to have to build it in the future.

We have one more day in session, and we have another week as Members, and I will commit to the Member that I will talk to the department and the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the things that we've heard from communities, and the Member is right, the infrastructure contribution to the communities has gone up. I think we were at $27,002,000 for most of my time as a Minister in this government, and we've brought it up to $29 million, and I think that's what we're asking this Assembly to approve.

One of the challenges that we hear from the communities, and there may be surpluses, they may have capital surpluses, because there are a number of different pots; they have the CPI funding, they have the Gas Tax funding, they have a number of...