Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The priority, as the Minister said, is to protect the investment in the infrastructure that currently the department has. That is the priority for the operations and maintenance dollars that we have out there. The application of those operations and maintenance dollars is
distributed around the entire system, including the Dempster Highway, the South Slave highways, North Slave highways and the Deh Cho highways.
Specifically, investments such as paved surfaces are of great concern because once you make the investment in a paved surface it is important to maintain that. The cost of replacing it is very high and therefore dollars are allocated each year through the operations and maintenance budget to preserve the existing surfaces. Some of the sections in the area in the South Slave have been there for a great many years and have been preserved in that fashion because each year we make a reinvestment in some surfacing. That will continue again this year. There are plans to do additional surface repair, what we call reseals, in sections of the highway on the Fort Smith highway between the Highway 2 junction near Hay River and Buffalo Junction, as well. Those programs will continue this summer and will continue in future years as the first priority of the department to protect both surfaces, gravel and paved. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.