Infrastructure top of mind as N.W.T. MLAs head into fall session

Infrastructure in all of its glorious forms is expected to be top of mind for N.W.T. MLAs as they head to the Legislative Assembly for their fall session Thursday.

The territory's capital budget is up for debate, spanning issues from energy needs to roads (permanent and winter) to school upgrades.

Shauna Morgan, MLA for Yellowknife North, thinks housing will top the list of capital priorities. 

"Certainly it's top of mind amongst regular members, and it was identified as one of our top priorities in our mandate," she said Wednesday. "We're almost a year in, so we want to see some substantial investments, new investments being made into housing across the territory." 

Lucy Kuptana, minister of housing, has already said her department is going to need to get some money approved to set up a temporary camp to address a lack of shelter spaces in Yellowknife. 

"We see across the territory, in every community, including Yellowknife, public housing units that are in horrible disrepair and huge waiting lists for public housing. So it is a major crisis," Morgan said. 

"I think we have been looking solely to the federal government up to this point to save us from this situation. And I think it's time that we made a commitment as the government of the Northwest Territories about what skin we have in the game and what we're going to commit to invest ourselves in public housing." 

John MacDonald, deputy minister of executive and Indigenous affairs, has said the government is looking to establish transitional housing in Yellowknife over the next year or so. 

Morgan — whose Yellowknife constituency includes the Salvation Army — said the move was "promising." She also agreed there's a need for supported transitional housing in the city to try to alleviate the pressure on shelters. 

She also brought up the forthcoming wellness and recovery centre, set to be built downtown, as a topic that will come up in the capital budget planning. 

"It's being built according to the needs of five or 10 years ago," Morgan said. "I think we will see some important questions being raised about how we should step back and think about how we maximize this new centre in terms of what it can offer … its capacity and the types of services that it offers."

The facility is scheduled to be completed by 2026. 

Addressing energy needs

The capital budget process is especially hectic for Caroline Wawzonek as she's both minister of infrastructure and finance. 

In wearing both hats for the past year, she says she's come to realize how complex the territory's energy system is. 

"I don't want to say 'behind entirely', but there's such an opportunity if we can advance and get to a place where we are supplying energy and making it available to large industrial consumers, that will bring the price of energy down for everybody else," she said. 

That would be good news for residents across the territory, but especially in Norman Wells, which recently declared a local state of emergency as costs in the community skyrocket due to a lack of barges this summer. The community is hoping Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely brings forward its motion to the assembly. 

Ultimately, the community is looking to leverage territorial support to gain access to federal funding. 

In the past, the territory has had limited ability to actually spend the money allocated in its capital budget, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars carrying over and delays in various projects. 

The upcoming session of the Legislative Assembly kicks off on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.