Excuse me? The department will continue the reconstruction, widening and improved drainage of the Dempster Highway near Fort McPherson at a cost of $2.3 million. The budget also schedules $1.4 million to place an asphalt surface on a 20-kilometre section of Highway 5 west of Fort Smith.
The Department of Transportation will put a permanent bridge over the Poplar River on Highway 7 south of Fort Simpson at a cost of $2.2 million. Bravo.
More than half the people in the Northwest Territories live in small communities that are not on the all-weather highway system. For these communities, air services are the main transportation link. Most of the people in the Northwest Territories would consider the Department of Transportation's
airport program as the most important program the department delivers.
The 1995-96 capital budget includes $10 million for new airport development and airport improvements. The Department of Transportation has negotiated two cost-sharing capital construction agreements with the federal government, which have enabled the department to pursue an ambitious multi-year airport construction program. In 1995-96, the new airports at Fort Good Hope and Snare Lake will be in their final stage of completion while the major earthworks will begin at Deline. This budget will also complete major upgrading at Coppermine and Pelly Bay.