Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now that I know what the status is, I want to make a couple of comments. First of all, the kind of granular material that is being used for reconstruction on that particular highway, particularly in the mountainous area where, I do not believe, the material that the department is accepting is good material. In fact, what we have noted, even after the reconstruction last summer, is that the material breaks up almost into shale, and breaks up into a point where it is all mud. I am not certain about the quality of material that you are paying for. I would ask the Minister if he could speak to those people who are working in the community, on the highway, that I believe would have better knowledge of the material that you are using.
The other point that I wanted to make is, I was kind of curious as to why we had transferred to us the responsibility of that highway before it was completely constructed to a quality of other highways. Now we are assuming basic responsibility for what I consider to be an incomplete highway, in terms of its quality and in terms of the amount of work that has to be done just reconstructing that highway.
Another point I wanted to raise, Mr. Chairman, is that I would really like, at some time, to get an indication by government really what they intend to do with Arctic Red River. They keep saying that it is on the highway, and the fact is that it is not on the highway. It is connected to the highway, but it is not on the highway. There is no year-round connection to that community. There have been some discussions about a bridge connection, but there has been no indication to the community what the status of that proposal is.
Services For Old Communities Versus New Communities
There is no proposal for an airport, and it is interesting to note -- I do not want to be critical of the situation of Mr. Zoe or his constituency, but we are going to build a new airport in Snare Lake when that community was not in existence 10 years ago. It really came out of an outpost camp. I am kind of curious as to how and why those kinds of decisions are made. What is the process for long-time communities to get at least the same kind of service and same kind of support for the services that they are providing to a community like Snare Lake or Colville Lake? I just want to know what the criteria are that this government uses. I do not believe that it is clear to the people, and it is certainly not clear to me what the criteria are. Maybe it has to do with political association. I think it is wrong, the way we determine long-term policies.
The other point that I wanted to raise is that one aspect of the long-term strategy that was not noted was this idea of the connection between the Dempster and Aklavik. I have to say, again, to our government that there are other aspects to connections with the gravel sources that you have to consider. We are paying on a yearly basis, and I note, interestingly, in the needs assessment that between now and the year 2000 we are going to spend over three million dollars for annual gravel hauls. Maybe that money would be better spent on long-term access, on a yearly basis rather than a daily basis, rather than on a short-term basis. I say that because we should be looking at how we might be able to spend our money wisely and save this government in the long term, and the communities in the long term.
The one other point that I wanted to raise is, again, going back to Arctic Red River, I am not certain the absolute solution -- and one of the proposals that had been made was the idea of purchasing another ferry to run between the Dempster and the community -- but I am not sure if that is the best way of spending money. Your intentions are to have two ferries in that particular location, and it has never been a matter that has really been dealt with, with the community.
The other point is that the services that are being offered by our government are being delivered out of Fort McPherson. Our health services, our police services, our economic development officers, our social workers, our renewable resource officers, all those services right now are being delivered out of Fort McPherson. And when you do not have access on a year-round basis, then how do those services get delivered to those people? That is generally what I wanted to raise. How you deal with them is a matter of planning, but it is a matter of planning internally in government, and not only with this particular department. I wanted to raise those points.