Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Highway 3 construction, reconstruction of paving the 90 kilometres of this highway, the predesign planning has been done. The existing conditions of the road have been documented. We have identified alternative alignments for reconstruction and this has been selected. The final alignment of the corridor has been selected. The new alignment will generally follow the existing right-of-way, the current corridor. It will be parallel either to the existing road or across the existing road at certain places. The engineering surveys are being carried out to collect the more detailed information and to prepare designs. As a result, part of the requirement was that the department was to submit a project plan on the Highway 3 reconstruction to the Intergovernmental Environmental Review Committee for review at the screening level under the Federal Environmental Act. The project plan includes technical proposals and methods that the department plans to use to address the environmental concerns that have been raised to date.
On the preparation that has been done, the budget for reconstruction of the Highway 3, has been approved at $8.86 million for this fiscal year. The plan is to do two sections, one from Rae toward Yellowknife and another section from Yellowknife toward Rae, starting from both ends. The plan is the construction of the highway grade at both ends will be publicly tendered as separate contracts later this summer with work to commence in the fall. Both of these contracts will be multi year contracts with construction of the highway grade that will entail a large amount of drilling and blasting. Thank you.