Mr. Chairman. We do not have that information right now. I think in the past there was a jet service there. I do not know if they still have a jet service. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. As regards to the maintenance that the Minister had referred to in earlier questions, he had referred to some patching that had taken place. I note that there was $700,000 spent at this particular airport on overlay of runway in prior years. Was this last year, or can you give us more details when this $750,000 was spent?. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in 1984 the overlay was completed to the Fort Smith runway. Perhaps, it is marked as $700,000 prior years. It is probably referring to 1984. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Do I assume then, from 1984 when there was $700,000 spent there, there was nothing spent?. Could the Minister tell us how much was spent on the maintenance that he has referred to the filling of cracks and that? What money was spent from 1984 until the present?.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in patching and filling cracks on the airports such as this one here, it is part of the maintenance program of that airport. If the honourable Member is asking me to get the figures of exactly how much it cost for that, we could get that information to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think the questions that I ask, I believe they would be important to have that information available. This is a sizeable amount of money that is being spent. I think that it would be important to have this information to make that type of expenditure decision on. If the Minister has referred to filling of cracks and that, could a smaller amount of money continue to work on filling these cracks? If that would be sufficient for two or three years until this government is in a better position financially? Also, the Minister does not have the information available as to whether there is jet service, if the larger aircrafts are using this runway and that, I would think, it would be important to have that information. I would need that before proceeding. Thank you.

We will try to get the information as soon as we can, perhaps even this afternoon. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Also, following up on the line of questioning with reference to the $2 million being spent for the overlay of the runway in Fort Smith. I regret that I am addressing this issue when my colleague, Mr. Miltenberger, is not in the House. But, unfortunately, I think that our time is limited, so I will address the question of the common point. I would like to know from the Minister, how he can rationalize spending this kind of money, $2 million on an existing runway that has been paved? Members of my committee and I were at that airport last year, and spent a fair bit of time there, It certainly did not look to the naked eye like it was in much need of repair. My point, we have airports in the eastern Arctic that are not long enough to provide for jet service. We have airports that are 99.9 percent of them are gravel, and the Minister is trying to rationalize that we should spend $2 million on repaving or touching up this runway, when we have gravel runways and runways that are not capable of taking or handling large jets. To me, it is like you have a guy with no clothes on, you have a guy with clothes. The guy with clothes, you give him a new suit. The other guy is still going around naked. I would like for the Minister to explain and justify how he can rationalize this. I look at what is happening this weekend with our meeting in Cambridge Bay. It is no wonder that people are so excited with the advent of Nunavut. For once, maybe, there will be some fair treatment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this $2 million for the Fort Smith airport is to do the overlay. When you have infrastructure in place, you have to maintain the infrastructure. If you have infrastructures such as the airport in Fort Smith, the maintenance of it is a higher level of maintenance and it is designed for jet service. We are getting that information, exactly what kind of aircraft is coming in to this facility. It is also a base for the fire fighting operation here in the north. It requires a good airbase. Therefore, this is required. That is the rationalization for doing this work. Part of the airport A transfer, there were commitments towards certain capital projects and, I believe, this was one of the commitments. We are getting that information as well, exact detail. We are trying to honour these type of commitments as we go along in this whole process. I know what the honourable Member is getting to. But, that is not what the $2 million is for. It is for the Fort Smith overlay pavement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I note that there was approximately half a million dollars spent on this same project last year. We are now proposing another $2 million, I am not referring to the lighting project in Arviat, but now that he brings it up, I will address it. He indicated that there was a commitment made here for $2 million, so therefore we have to honour it. The Minister did not hesitate in deviating from the commitment that he made to the people of Arviat when he took out the half million dollars without consulting myself nor the members of the community. My point, Mr. Chairman, is that I asked the Minister if he would reconsider reallocating this money, not necessarily to my community, but to other communities that need assistance as far those with gravel runways, runways being extended, and runways that may need some help or attention. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we are talking about the $2 million for Fort Smith overlay runway. According to our business plan, according to this main estimate, this is what the plan of this department is, to do this project. I am trying to give you details of this $2 million on how we are going to do the work. To take the $2 million away from this project and spread it around, that is not the intention of myself or this department to do. As I said, there were certain commitments for the transfer such as other airports in the north where we are building ATVs and so forth. There were commitments during transfer and we are honouring those. This is a similar case here as well. We have to honour these types of commitments that we make. Again, this airport requires it. We are talking about safety. We have been patching up the cracks and so forth. We have to do this type of overlay so that the life of this airport continues. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The final question to the Minister. The Minister has indicated that the reason for this work is safety. How does the Minister equate filling up the cracks in already paved runways, when 90 percent of the runways in the eastern Arctic are gravel? It does not make any sense to me. When you come in, you land in the community of Arviat and the rocks and the gravel are flying up and hitting the windows and the wings. I would be concerned about safety there, not about whether we need some extra tar or pavement to fill up some cracks in the runway in Fort Smith. Whether it is Fort Smith or any other runway that is already paved, I think there should be a policy in place, that if somebody already has an installation such as a paved runway in place, they should not be looked at until the other runways are not paved are addressed. I think it is very simple, very basic, very fair. So once again, I will ask the Minister and I will listen for his response, will he reconsider redistributing these funds to other airports or runways that need this type of attention? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.