Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to inform the House that as of October 1, 2001, the Department of Transportation has introduced a new 1-800 telephone information system for the traveling public on our highway system.

-- Applause

This new telephone system gives the public access to highway and ferry reports 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unlike the outdated tape recording and answering machine service this replaces, callers have immediate access with no busy signal or waiting time. The new service extends right across Canada, providing highway and ferry information for all regions of the Northwest Territories' transportation system.

Mr. Speaker, effective with the new 2002 NorthwesTel telephone directory, the public of the Northwest Territories will see only one telephone number in their telephone directory. On the old system, people had to know to telephone the correct one of our regional telephone numbers to get the information for the highway or ferry they wanted. The new directory will be released April 1, 2002.

Mr. Speaker, I invite the Members to try the new system at 1-800-661-0750. I am sure they will find the new system is quite an improvement over the old one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.