Total activity, $9.897 million.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Transportation Planning

Turn to page 09-19, transportation planning. Buildings and works, headquarters, total region, $1.43 million.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Fort Smith, total region, $17.036 million.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Mr. Antoine, sorry. I missed you.

Mr. Chairman, under transportation planning for Fort Smith, this is the area where the highway is getting reconstructed and paved. I just wanted to make a comment with regard to that. The work that this department is doing in my area is going along fairly well. We have major infrastructure, specifically on the bridge to Wrigley, as well as the access road built in Jean Marie River. This current summer, there was work done.

I made a statement in the House when the Minister wasn't here last week with regard to the great progress that has been made in building this access road in Jean Marie River. I don't know if the Minister was aware of it, but I did make a statement that the work was complete beyond what was anticipated this summer. There is money in the budget for this coming year and I appreciate that.

This past summer, the people who were working on it ran out of money and the season was still very good. With the type of work they were doing, if there was more money put in at that time, perhaps they could have done more. But there is only so much per year that is put in there. I think the Minister knows what I am talking about. The equipment wasn't up to par, though. If they had had the proper equipment, they could have done more. I was wondering if it was possible for next year, if this budget is approved and if they are working very well and run out of money before the end of the year, to help this community out by putting additional money in there? I see future years anticipated at $1.6 million in there. Is it at all possible to use some of that in advance?

The purpose is the work is going very well and then they run out of money. There is still a lot of good season left, but they have to shut down their operation. I am just saying if they are working very well and they run out of money, is it possible to have more funds put in place? That is the concern I have in this particular area, for the Jean Marie River access road. That is the comment I have. Could the Minister reply to that, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is $350,000 in the budget for this coming year. There was roughly about $433,000 spent in previous years. We are committed to this project to a total of about $2.4 million. We have allocated these dollars based upon what we think is a fair allocation of dollars. This is a major road facility compared to some of the other ones we are doing in Pelly Bay or places like that.

I would commit to the Member this: this access road program has taken off and I am very pleased with the way it has gone. If you remember, Mr. Ningark from Pelly Bay was a strong advocate of this program. Should some of the projects that we have under way for next year not fulfil their fiscal commitment, if the project was going well in Jean Marie River, I would commit to reallocating some of that money if it wasn't spent. Do you understand? If we have X amount of dollars in the budget for X community and for whatever reason it doesn't get done, we are flexible enough to be prepared to do that. As a matter of fact, we did that in a very small way this year for Baker Lake. It was not much money, but we did it. There is no new money, but there may be a reallocation of money if the work doesn't get completed in the other access road programs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Todd. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In this section, transportation planning, there is nothing in the budget for what I am talking about. We need to do something to improve the road immediately out of Fort Simpson towards the airport. It is

about 14 kilometres, perhaps more. It is probably more like 18 or 19 kilometres if you take it right from where the ferry comes off at the Liard River, right into the community of Fort Simpson. It is a well-travelled road, especially to the airport. It has to be repaired constantly throughout the summer because it is a gravel road. They have treated it with calcium and every time it rains, it turns to soup. The heavy trucks pound the road and it is very hard for people to keep their vehicles. Many people have moved out of the community to another part of the community called "Wild Rose Acreage" and the vehicles are taking a pounding.

The request has been made to the department a number of times to see if we could put some asphalt there. There is nothing in the budget for it, but I wanted to ask the Minister if it is at all possible to do some preliminary studies and evaluation to determine what would be required to get the road so that it could be paved or have an asphalt surface? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, the honourable Member did draw this to my attention some time ago. I did commit to take a look at it in terms of whether it was possible. Unfortunately, there is $1 million less in the budget because of general restraint that everyone is working under, not just myself. I did commit and I will commit publicly that we will do some engineering work on that to determine the cost and see if we can fit it into the budget somewhere. We will certainly make every effort to do that. We just weren't able to do that this year because of the limitations that we are all working under. I am working, as some of you know, with the federal government and provincial counterparts in trying to put together a joint national highway program.

Should we be fortunate enough to be able to secure something there, we may be able to do some of these things similar to what we did when we did the strategic transportation initiative. When we got that money from the federal government, it moved a lot of things up, some of the air strips in Mr. Antoine's riding and others. So I would commit that we would do some preliminary cost-analysis of this project and hopefully be able to work it into the budget somewhere in the next little while. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Todd. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If that could be done, I would appreciate it. Certainly, I would be willing to work with the Minister and his department with the community of Fort Simpson to do that and follow through with his commitment. Thank you.

Thank you. We are on Inuvik, total region, $2.3 million.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Mr. Dent.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The one for $800,000? Is that the one Mr. Dent is referring to?

Mr. Dent.