Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The winter roads have closed in the past at different times. The whole road doesn't deteriorate at the same rate. There are northern and southern areas with different climatic regions. Some of the roads in the system go through major lakes and rivers that overflow north of Wrigley quite often and there are major problems in that area. In some areas, like Nahanni Butte and Jean Marie, there are no major rivers to cross and there are no problems with overflow. It doesn't take much work to keep those roads open.

What I'm asking the Minister is if his department has looked at each highway system specifically to determine, historically, how much additional work has gone into each section. I think the decision was made by the department to try to save money, but I would like his department to consider looking at the roads separately to see how much money was spent in each area in the past. I think some of these road systems didn't require much additional money to keep open until they start to thaw.

People in the communities know that once the roads start to thaw, not to use them any more. But shutting down a perfectly good road on March 15th, which you can use for another two weeks, is not reasonable at this time. Thank you.

Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I've asked the department this morning was what our liability would be if we leave the roads open without additional maintenance costs. In other words, if they would be still accessible and there are no storms, et cetera. I haven't got an answer yet but when I do, I assure the honourable Member -- because I know this is an important issue to his constituency -- that he will be the first person I speak with. We are looking at what our liability would be if we left the roads open, if weather conditions are such that it would be okay to do that. We are looking at that, yes.

Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Supplementary to the Minister of Transportation. This morning on a CBC radio program, one of Mr. Todd's employees, Mr. Bernie Cassidy, director of highway operations in Hay River, said by shutting down the entire system it would save approximately $240,000. This is for the whole system. The other thing he said was the way they would probably close the roads would be by placing snow fills across the access points to the roads or putting up barricades. Is this the intention of the department? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Todd.

I suspect that my discussion with the deputy minister was after Mr. Cassidy's comments in the news. The position of the department right now is to close the roads on March 15th. If that's how we technically close them, I suppose that's correct. However, again, I want to say to the honourable Member that I've asked the department if we can leave the roads open, what our liabilities will be. Do you know what I mean? That's what I'm asking for right now. There's no additional money to maintain them, but I am checking to see if we can leave them open and if, at that time of year, they would still be sufficiently solid so people can still use them. I haven't received an answer yet to that. Hopefully, by later on today or tomorrow I should.

Thank you. Final supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just one more supplementary because it is an important issue to me. I wanted to say that I have a public announcement by the Department of Transportation from the Deh Cho Drum of February 28th. I notice these ads were in all the newspapers throughout the north, probably at substantial cost. I notice that signs were put up at these highways too, at substantial cost. These costs could have been diverted to keeping the highways open for maybe another week or so.

I just wanted to say that the weather at this time of the year, in my constituency anyway, is cool in the evening, without very much snow and with ice. So, the roads are still usable for quite some time, with very minimal maintenance. I wanted to ask the Minister if his department is going to be looking at that as well and, if they're putting up barricades, if these barricades could be movable so if the road is still passable people could use these roads at their own risk.

Mr. Todd.

I asked the deputy minister this morning in discussions with him to take a look at this to determine what our liabilities would be. When we come to a satisfactory decision, then we will determine whether there will be portable or permanent barricades, or whatever. There may, in fact, be no barricades if we can do what is being suggested. I'm hopeful that we can have some resolution to the issue by tomorrow. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Koe.

Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Todd.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't remember the name of the company, but I know the proprietor is a gentleman called Mike Freeland, I believe. I think it's Qaivvik Ltd., but I'm not sure. Thank you.

Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Does the Minister know who is working with Mike Freeland in doing this contract? Does he have partners or associates working with him on this contract?

Mr. Todd.

I'm sorry, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the corporate structure of Mr. Freeland's company. I do know that it is a northern company and that he will have extensive consultations with the players in the industry, from Inuvik to Iqaluit, and he will bring forward a report which will hopefully reflect the changes that industry and this ministry want very quickly -- because we want to do this reasonably quickly -- I believe by the end of March. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Koe.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I understand that a couple of his associates in this contract are from outside the Northwest Territories. I understand one is a company called Exceleration Corp. from Calgary and another associate is from Copenhagen, Denmark.

Shame.

A company called Hoff and Overgaard. I'm very curious, with what the Minister told us -- that this is a purely northern company and doing a review of our northern tourism industry -- whether or not the rumour I heard is correct.

Mr. Todd.