You know, when it comes to these regulations, which constitute borrowing....
I must remind you that the borrowing limit was set by the Government of Canada prior to this budget implementation bill. It really has nothing to do with what you talked about there, because it had already been accomplished.
This bill really speaks to the changes in the nature of borrowing, and that's where the concern lies. Right now about 40% of the borrowing limit is taken up by self-financing loans, mostly through the public utility corporation in the Northwest Territories. The public utility corporation, which has a mandate to return a profit on the investments it makes, constitutes almost half of what the borrowing limit is within the Government of the Northwest Territories.
So the issue in terms of conditions of borrowing, whether the federal cabinet chooses to make self-financing loans part of that overall umbrella of $800 million, is a very serious issue to people in my territory. We have enormous infrastructure expenditures for the future.
I can give a number of instances. In the Sahtu region of the Northwest Territories, there's the need for a road from Wrigley to Norman Wells. In the last year we've sold a billion dollars' worth of oil and gas leases in that region. Without the road being built, the cost of drilling a well in that region is extraordinarily high. We need to move ahead with infrastructure and development so that we can make our economy work for us. Without fiscal capacity within the system, that will simply not happen. We can't plan for it. We have to go cap in hand to somebody else for the opportunity to do the things that we see can return investment to us.
Now, very strongly, by not consulting the governments that are engaged in the work of building Canada, with money to do the work, with their own money, to do the work that they need to do for their people, you're simply....
This is missing the boat. And this is not just for this cabinet. When you pass these laws, they're for every other cabinet that follows, unless there's another amendment made.
So I would ask that these laws be made in a careful fashion that respects the ability of our governments in the three northern territories to be assured that they will be consulted before any changes are made to these very important functions of government. Fiscal capacity is the basis of responsible government.