The continuation of the pavement program was not placed in the capital plan due to the excuse of our highway traffic which did not warrant pavement. And it's not praise to Arnold McCallum, Mr. Speaker. It's praise to Bruce McLaughlin who was Minister of Transportation at the time.

However, Mr. Speaker, when the issue of paving was addressed in the budget session, I recall advising the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Todd, about the inequitable distribution of funds to address paving highways across the north. Mr. Todd immediately took the responsibility of addressing the inequity and found a method to find funds to pave our highway.

Mr. Speaker, I was extremely pleased to see local people working and, in addition, local contractors such as Herons' Trucking and C & R Construction assisting with the paving project.