Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am cognizant of the fact that the SCOF did ask them to quantify their projects, but the point I am trying to make to the Minister is the fact that Highway No. 5 has been partially paved for the past six years, if not more -- seven years. All of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere along that highway, you have the pavement come to a dead end and you go back onto gravel, and there does not seem to be any planning to address the remaining portion of that paving. It is not as if I am talking about a highway cost when you compare it to the Yellowknife highway, or the Providence highway, where you have to fix up a whole new base. The base on Highway No. 5 is an excellent base, and the cost to place the paving and complete the project they started would not be comparable to those other highways. I want the Minister to be conscious of that.
The other concern I have is in respect to basically saying, "depending on the demand on the highway." Well, everyone knows that you prefer to drive on a paved highway rather than on a gravel highway, so there is no doubt the demand on the highway between the border and Hay River, or the border and the old Pine Point road, or the border and Providence or Yellowknife will be a lot greater, because people would prefer to go on a paved highway rather than a gravel highway. So how can you get the demand up if you just have a gravel highway to drive on? But I guess what I am concerned about is that there is no indication of this department completing the job they started seven years ago, even though I recognize they were not a department then, but the government had placed paving on that highway and they have not completed it, and there is no indication that they are even going to make attempts to complete it. Initially, why did they pave it if they decided they were not going to finish it? This is why I would like to get come indication as to how the Minister is going to address it.
I do not feel it is fair that as residents we should have to wait until 1997 to ask the department to try to finish up the job they started away back in the middle of 1980. I think it is only fair that we can ask them to complete the job that they started. So I can get some indication as to the Minister's viewpoints on this, Mr. Chairman.