Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to reiterate what we had stated in going through this process. As chairman of the committee, I had to be very neutral, in a sense, when we were listening to those who would come forward and make presentations. I myself have not had much opportunity, besides one-on-one discussions with other individuals of what I felt about this initiative.

These bills, Mr. Speaker, have definitely generated overwhelming interest in comparison to other bills of this Assembly or previous Assemblies. We have had large turnouts. We have had a lot of submissions made and the talk in the streets, in coffee shops has been a lot about what this government has been trying to do through this initiative. Even when one went to buy groceries, that seemed to be a place that would spark it as well. It is something.

As we have stated and I have heard as well, there is a need to repair our roads. How do we go about doing that? The Minister said he was disappointed that we never went into any specific details. I agree with what Mr. Bell stated, that our initiative at this point was to go out with the legislation as it was presented and get feedback from residents in the Territories. The Territories were very clear at the public hearings of how they felt this initiative would impact them. We went in the report to list those and list them as accurately as they were presented.

I believe that if there is to be another initiative of this nature done, that we have tried to open the doors, in a sense, for government and industry and private sector to come together and work on an initiative. Most clearly, what was presented to us in every hearing we held was that this option should be stopped. It should be cancelled. In fact, one presenter in Norman Wells stated it should hit the shredder and we should start over.

I think that is what we are trying to do here, is to open the door to the possibility of stakeholders and aboriginal groups in communities and this government to work together to come up with something that would be seen to be more effective, in the sense of spreading the load and the burden on this and not increasing the cost of living to the limits that would start increasing the hardships we already face as a government.

For example, in recruiting of nurses and doctors and teachers, of tradesmen now, we hear the large companies say they are having difficulty in recruiting people to work, not only from the Northwest Territories, but from other jurisdictions. As people come North and when they land in a community for the first time, the reality of where they have moved to hits them rather hard when they first go to get their supplies, their first bits of groceries and they see what they have to pay for goods in the Northwest Territories compared to where they had come from if they were in Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia or even the southern parts of this Territory. When they go further north, the costs go up by a lot, huge numbers in some cases.

That is where we have concerns from residents of the Territories listing their concerns as to the amount of analyses that was done, understanding that it was difficult to try to pinpoint what an average family would use on a yearly basis. The government went to three main issues: groceries, home heating oil, and automotive fuel.

However, there are a lot of areas and I will use my experience, Mr. Chairman. I have a large family, a young growing family. The estimates given -- and I am probably one that does not fit into the demographics of 2.5 children. I have five at home. Living in a community that is farther from the border and the costs of goods to be transported are higher to begin with just because of the distance, children do not just survive on shelter and food. There is clothing that needs to be bought and anybody who has young children knows that children can grow fast and you have to replace clothing on a fairly regular basis. They tend to wear them out rather quickly. So it is those areas that I, as well, share with the constituents and their concerns that would come forward.

Initially, Mr. Chairman, there was not a lot of concern from the Beaufort-Delta area about expanding the repair or construction of the Dempster Highway. It was known that the initial amount for the construction and widening was $2.5 million that was an ongoing commitment that was in the five-year capital plan and remained there. This new money would help accelerate that, but in fact, four years of extra money would not complete the Dempster Highway. We would get a number of kilometres done, but still be short. So there is an area of concern. There was a lot of debate that came out of this and some negative comments of people and interpretations of what was happening. I know it was not taken very well.

For example, in the community of Inuvik when the Minister of Transportation went up to the community and held a public meeting with the town council, an individual presented a petition at that time to the Minister. The Minister's remarks were taken quite negatively by the people who were there when he stated that anybody would sign a petition, that when they went to a grocery store and a petition was presented, anybody would sign it. Then he used the remark that if you give them a petition at the end of the Dempster Highway, everybody would sign. Well, that is fairly accurate, Mr. Chairman. Nobody wants to see an increase in the cost of goods, so they are going to sign that. That is true to a degree.

However, I think a lot of people on principle feel that initiatives of this nature should not be investigated by a territorial government in light of our the cost of living to residents already.

Mr. Chairman, as well, people driving the Dempster Highway, when they get to the end of it, it is a long section. It is all gravel. They would probably say at the end of it, yes, I would like this road to be widened and fixed and chip sealed or paved, but we know that is not going to happen. Even if this proposal went ahead, the widening would not happen right to the community. We would still have a gravel road for 700 and some kilometres before we would still the first chip seal, that being from Inuvik to Klondike Corner, as we call it. It is over 700 kilometres.

Mr. Chairman, as a committee, we have tried to do our best in hearing from the people and presenting their situation and their concerns to this Assembly. I hope, as we stated, that the government reviews this, that they as well were hearing from their constituents, because many constituents from all over the Territories spoke to this issue. I hope that Cabinet and those that were sponsoring these bills were listening and paying attention to their constituents, that this would be too hard as heard.

Mr. Chairman, those who did speak in favour were very few indeed. I think we have to take that into consideration when we are reviewing bills and proposals put forward by this government. With that, Mr. Chairman, I conclude my remarks and I stand by our committee report and hope that the government is listening to the people. Thank you.