Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the cost of doing business in the North is expensive. There’s no doubt about that reality. However, I often wonder if a lack of coordination from the government hinders our ability to support our communities in terms of infrastructure planning and management.
Spring is here, and I want to ensure we are positioning both government and industry to be successful in advancing important infrastructure projects during the upcoming construction season. The NWT has many unique operating environments and a short window in which to bring in materials. Yet the government's own processes do not always account for this reality. How many federal dollars have we missed because we do not position our projects to be shovel ready in an efficient manner? When the government does not issue RFPs early enough in the spring for summer work, industry is not able to move fast enough to staff up and bring materials in. This leaves the North behind on important projects, Mr. Speaker. Just look at the delays to our current infrastructure projects; delays that have left 500 million of federal funding unspent on the table. If we truly want to deal with our infrastructure deficit, better coordination and more forward thinking would help to get more projects underway and stimulate the flagging economy.
Mr. Speaker, whenever I look through the capital estimates, I note that there are usually two to three projects in a community or region in various departments. And I ask, are the departments coordinating the supply of materials for all projects together and effectively; or, are these projects operating in silos and we’re wasting our resources and duplicating efforts where we don’t need to be? If we really want to see a successful north, with robust and reliable infrastructure, the government must take a more coordinated approach to better plan and sequence northern projects and retrofits. We must pool our efforts so we can better utilize our buying power, our transportation efforts, and our labour force towards building a stronger territory for us all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.
