Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Julian. I will certainly say hi to Mr. Bevington. He comes to our “lunch with the mayor” meetings every month. I'm sorry that I don't have the costs of what that would be. Certainly it is far less than $14 billion. We know that housing across the territory is dire.

Finance committee  Many communities still connect through satellite, which is not very reliable. As a personal reference, my parents live in Rankin Inlet, and they have satellite service. I am completely unable to connect with them through video. Their cell service is extremely spotty. I cannot always get through to them on their cellphones.

Finance committee  I want to clarify what I said earlier. Ten of our communities are satellite communities. I believe Northwestel is working on service to some communities, but I'm not sure that those would affect the current satellite communities. I'm not sure what is to be done in the next couple of months.

Finance committee  I can talk about the riverbank in my own community. It has been sliding, and we had a major slide 50 years ago. Because of the impacts of climate change, with permafrost across the north and rising water levels, we are seeing, in communities like Tuktoyaktuk, the water advance into the community.

Finance committee  That is correct. Not all communities in the Northwest Territories have fibre optic service.

Finance committee  The unique conditions of the north greatly affect how municipal infrastructure is built and maintained. We face extreme isolation and a shorter and highly variable construction season. We have limited resources and capacity available, limited access to funding. We have growing demands from aging and existing infrastructure and unique project needs.

Finance committee  Is this for me as well?

Finance committee  Thank you. As the MP is probably well aware, broadband connectivity in northern and remote communities is, I would say, ghastly. We do not even have fibre optic to a lot of communities. As very remote communities, we can't really even connect video. We face challenges all across the north.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much for the opportunity to present to all of you as part of the pre-consultation for budget 2021. I am Lynn Napier, mayor of the town of Fort Smith and president of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities. We proudly represent all 33 communities in the Northwest Territories, which vary in size from 52 to 21,000 residents.