Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to point out a couple of things concerning the Snare Lake Airport. While it may be true that comments had been made to include it in the budget for 1993-94, we are merely moving it back one year. This was in response, Mr. Chairman, to a questionnaire that was sent to communities by our Premier in April, asking capital projects be made a priority and, Mr. Chairman, the response from the Chief of Snare Lake listed it as No. 5 on a list of 13 priorities. That was as of May 14.
It is true that the Member did write a letter but the letter was written on November 16. That was a considerable amount of time that went by. Mr. Chairman, the start of that airport in 1994 is probably in line with that community's priorities. That is what they requested and set aside, Mr. Chairman. We are aiming to provide as much work as we can to meet community needs under the existing dollars.
Mr. Chairman, we do have prior commitments that we must meet before a certain time, and they come under the original agreement the Government of the Northwest Territories had made with Transportation Canada on the contribution agreement. That expires, Mr. Chairman, in 1995 and we are trying to meet those commitments to reconstruct airports that were a priority. They were listed to this House some time ago, and that includes airports in the Member's riding.
Mr. Chairman, in the past year here, we have completed a couple of projects in that area, Rae Lakes and Lac La Martre are just two of them. I think we have certainly met the commitments to that Member's riding. I think the North Slave region has received a fair share and we want to complete airports in those communities that are in dire need of them.