Mahsi cho, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I too am a member of the committee that reviewed the bill and went to the public. I too heard all the comments, the good majority of them being very negative to the proposed bill. The report that has been written is reflective of what we heard in our public hearing process. There is no challenging that.

I feel I am kind of unique in this area because I am one person that supports the plans that the department has for improving the roads. There are many reasons why. Safety is my main concern, and the economic times that we live in. The biggest and most often repeated suggestion in the public hearings has been that we should go to Ottawa en masse and demand that the federal government pay for the roads.

I suggested to the department a couple of areas. That Highway No. 3 be part of the lobby to the federal government to make Highway No. 3 part of the Trans Canada Highway system. In that way, the government would have no choice, but to help improve it. The other area I suggested to the department was to approach Heritage Canada for Highway No. 5 to Fort Smith. The majority of that road is in the park.

Having said that, I, as an individual Member of this House, have been approached by my constituents in the Deninu Ku'e and a number of other communities, by people who do not go to public hearings, who are shy and do not like to go in front of a panel such as the one we had. There is silent support for these proposed bills. People who have lived here all their lives and people who will continue to live here all their lives want to see improvements on the road system.

The argument used by many people outside and inside this House is that we cannot afford it. However, I would argue, Mr. Chairman, that if you pose the question "Do you want to help pay for anything?" 99 percent of the time, the answer would be no. People just do not want to pay. I believe that is just human nature.

We have an unprecedented time. We have employment opportunities throughout the Northwest Territories. Oil and gas is becoming a real viable option to other areas of employment. The diamond mines are continually saying that they cannot fill their aboriginal proportion and the northern hire proportion that was agreed to by the GNWT and the companies through socio-economic agreements. At any time in history and in the foreseeable future, if we are going to make a hard decision to improve our infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, I think the time is now. I think people can pay for the increased cost of living.

One of the problems that we see in the Northwest Territories is that we are always comparing ourselves to the south where they do not have to pay much. Then again, if you look at the average income statistics throughout Canada, the Northwest Territories is one of the highest paid populations in Canada, to offset the high cost of living.

The government has proposed a number of initiatives to bring money back into people's pockets, increase the income support levels to match the increasing cost of living. Some would argue that the September 11th events that happened in New York and what is happening with tourism throughout the world is not a good enough excuse. I would argue otherwise. I would argue that Canadians would want to be secured, to feel security.

We see what is happening in the United States with anthrax. It started on the eastern seaboard. Now it is spreading throughout the west. What is to say Canada will not be targeted in that same manner? If that is the case, then security initiatives by the federal government are going to take priority. We do not know how long this conflict is going to continue.

The President of the United States and all the world leaders, including our own Prime Minister, have indicated that it is going to be a long conflict. There is no foreseeable end to the conflict. As a result, I do not think we can depend on the federal government for funding of this nature. If we are going to improve infrastructure in the Northwest Territories, we are going to have to make some tough decisions. That is what we are here for. That is what we get elected for. If we are going to say no to anything that is going to cost us money, then as a government, we might as well just not develop plans, sit back, tighten our bootstraps and be managers and not leaders.

I did not run for this position to be a manager, Mr. Chairman. I am willing to make the tough decisions to see infrastructure improvement. It is a safety issue. It is an economic issue. Tourism is one area that people continually say is not taken advantage of to its full potential. Yet summer after summer, we hear RV owners saying that I am going as far as the pavement or the chip seal, leaving communities like the community I represent, Deninu Ku'e, not receiving as many tourists as it can receive. My colleague, Mr. Miltenberger, is not seeing the tourism in his community that he could see because of the road infrastructure. Yellowknife, the highway down towards Liard, as we see oil and gas development happening, we expect 70,000 vehicles of trucks for pipe movement. Imagine what that is going to do to our road infrastructure. Without a plan to recoup some of that money from industry, how can we pay for the maintenance of the road, let alone upgrade the road to a level that is acceptable to standards throughout Canada?

It is a tough decision. I have been lobbied from one side to the other, but I still believe that we do not have a better economic time than now to make a decision. There are no guarantees from the federal government. There are no guarantees from anywhere else. I have not heard of another viable plan that might replace this plan, but people argue "Let us take time to develop the plan."

I agree with my colleagues when they talk about their Cabinet and departments developing plans and then try to sell the plans. I think they should come up with a different consultation process, shop around before they buy into it. Unfortunately, the two bills that we took to the public had been developed and then tried to be sold. Those practices should be reviewed and altered so people have a sense of ownership for these plans.

However, until I see an alternative plan that is better than the one that has been proposed, I have no choice, but to support it because I believe there is no better economic time to take the bite. Many people in my riding and many people from different communities across the North say they do not mind paying an extra few dollars on different items because they are a regular user of the road. I spend way too much money on washing my vehicles and maintenance of my vehicles because of the rough conditions of the roads already anyway, so it evens out down the road. There is another side of the argument that has never been heard.

I will continue to support this bill and I would like to see it get to the next level of debate so the public can hear it. The Minister had indicated that there has been some amendments to the bill to address some of the major concerns that were brought to us. I think the public deserves to hear that. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my side as a Member. Thank you.