Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, as the Minister of MACA will know, the city of Yellowknife has been challenged for the $100 million waterline solution. I'm wondering -- and sorry, and I'm seeing that they've had to shift directions temporarily. What is the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs specifically doing to help the city of Yellowknife? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, we do provide some funding to communities. How they allocate the funding is up to mayor and council. At this time, I'm not aware of any correspondence between department of MACA and the city of Yellowknife for assistance with particular projects, so I would have to get more information from the department if there has been. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, water's very critical to day-to-day life so I won't go at length of that; I'm sure that stands as a fact on its own.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister's saying he's not aware of the problem or aware of what they're going to do, or maybe we can clarify what the Minister can do in his role as Minister of communities when the city of Yellowknife's struggling with this potential financial endeavour. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to clarify for the Member, as I stated that the -- I'm not aware of the department and the city corresponding on this particular project. So if they have been, I will find out but I'm not aware of it. I'm not saying that they haven't been helping or there hasn't been any dialogue; I'm not aware of it.
Further to that, Mr. Speaker, you know, the city has planned to run this project. Unfortunately, like everything else, we're all aware that project costs have gone up and unexpectedly, obviously, the city wasn't prepared for that as are most infrastructure projects these days. So we're all running into these problems and community governments like the city of Yellowknife, through their governing structure, have had to -- have also had to be a little bit smart and diligent on how they're going to run this project. So, you know, this is not an easy task for them, and it's similar to all the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a healthy, safe infrastructure is critical for any community. Mr. Speaker, the project went from several million to up to $57 million and now a $100 million, and, of course, they had to abandon the current plan basically because of construction and whatnot. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister take an active role, reach out to the city of Yellowknife, and see what resources MACA can use within their system to help advocate with the federal government to get more access to funding so we can get a healthy, safe waterline here in Yellowknife which serves half our territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. MACA does a lot of good work with a lot of municipalities throughout the North and including the city of Yellowknife and they're constantly communicating, so I'm sure if they are requiring assistance from MACA, that they've already communicated with the department. And that's probably something I could look into. But other than, MACA's role with the community government is supporting them when they have to make some of these tough decisions at times, not necessarily finding more money for them. I'm sure the city of Yellowknife has some amazing resources and staff to find funding and extra funding for their community. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
