Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated in my Member's statement, I truly believe that if we are going to build a strong Northwest Territories for our children to continue to prosper, we are going to have to do it with a balanced approach, where the small communities work along with the large communities and visa versa.

Mr. Speaker, I have a concern. It has been stated publicly in this House, and I will refer to the unedited Hansard on page 476, when Mr. Steen was questioned by the Member for Mackenzie Delta on Highway No. 3. The Minister's response, in part to the question, was that the department cannot distribute a budget based on spreading it evenly through the regions.

If that is, in fact, a policy of this government that we are going to spend money based on volume as a major part of the package, then the rest of us outside the large centres are going to suffer dearly. I can refer back to the 13th Assembly in which I believe Inuvik suffered heavily under the reduction scenarios. So my question to the Premier is, is it in fact the policy of this government to spend volume-based?