Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. It seems that my riding is a low priority when compared to other communities. I have a highway that is below standard. I have dust problems in both communities, drainage problems and much needed chipsealing in both communities and much, much more.

In this respect the government is failing my communities. The goal is simple, Mr. Speaker: to increase infrastructure dollars in the Tu Nedhe riding. The solution is a cooperative approach with the Minister, the communities and myself to develop a new infrastructure plan for each community. Later today I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s a question for the Minister. I’m fairly certain that the deferred maintenance program is for buildings only, but just for confirmation I want to know if the GNWT did an evaluation of its buildings, roads and equipment prior to the expenditures for this year, the ’08–09 $5 million expenditures. I was wondering if there was any evaluation done prior to that to determine the cap, to determine where the money got spent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to working with me and each of the Tu Nedhe communities of Fort Revolution and Lutselk’e to develop a youth strategy? I feel that a youth strategy is important. I define the youth strategy as a comprehensive, community based approach to investing in Youth budgets, programming, infrastructure and other youth related support.

During my visit to the communities this past year I heard from the youth in both communities about how they feel and what they need. “There is not much for us to do” is often the comment.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House what the plans are, if any, to increase the budget in the Youth portfolio for 2009–2010?

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, on numerous occasions I’ve talked about the impact of the high cost of living for residents of Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. Today I would like to focus on the high cost of food in the packets, supplements, store bought foods or traditional foods for Tu Nedhe communities.

Mr. Speaker, in small communities like Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e little or no competition in the local economy results in higher food costs. Couple this with transportation costs and Tu Nedhe families are hit with a double whammy. In addition to this...

I must have missed that. I didn’t see the deferred maintenance plan, but that’s good. I’ll look forward to getting a copy of the deferred maintenance plan for this year and just look forward to receiving the rest of the plan.

Did the GNWT evaluate its buildings to complete the deferred maintenance programs in order to determine the allocations for this year and future years?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am happy with the timing of the way capital has been rolled out. I think the sooner we get this out, the better the chances of us actually completing the projects are. I see some problems with the allocation because of the capital planning.

In reality, in Tu Nedhe over the next four years, plus future years, what was allocated outside of what we considered, areas like that highway, was actually some holdback money, which is very interesting, I found. They have no capital projects in two of the communities at all. The only capital project that appeared in Tu Nedhe is the...

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to conducting a comprehensive review of how Youth budgets are currently allocated, specifically in the Tu Nedhe communities — if there are any planned budgets going into those two communities of Lutselk’e and Fort Resolution?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 6, 2008, in my Member’s statement I talked about this government’s limited support for youth in smaller communities. Many of our smaller communities struggle daily with little or no youth budgets. Municipal budgets are already strained with O&M and delivering essential services.

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister responsible for Youth. I’d like to ask the Minister: can he advise this House what the current level of funding specifically earmarked for youth, not counting education budgets, is for 2008–09?