Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Member for his comments, because it saves me from saying them.

-- Laughter

It is a fact of life that people will be concerned about the structure of the highway they are driving when they are driving it. So it does not matter where you are in the 2,000 kilometres, people are concerned about the section they are driving.

The department recognizes this, and makes every effort to try and spread our resources over the whole 2,000 kilometres as the traffic requires. If there is heavier traffic, we obviously have to put more funds towards repairing or maintaining that section of highway.

The Member is right. He has a section of highway that is not hard topped, the same as the section of highway south of Fort Simpson is not hard topped. It is also not hard topped in the Fort Liard area.

Mr. Speaker, heavy truck traffic, no matter where it is, takes a toll on the road. You can see the results of heavy truck traffic in the Fort Liard area as well. This puts a strain on our budget. In return, we ask this House to give us sufficient funds to maintain those highways. I can assure the Member his section of highway could get just as much attention as another section, depending on the traffic. Thank you.