Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try and keep my comments fairly short. I would like to say that since I have been in the Legislature, we have heard an awful lot about the lack of money that this department has to do the job that they have to do with maintaining, let alone building, new highways.

One of the things we have heard a lot about is Highway No. 3. I think that Highway No. 3 drives the whole process. I know that of all the questions that have been asked in this House about completing that highway have always met with some opposition from various locations. The department was caught as to how they were going to fast-track this process. Obviously, they have found a way to get around it by satisfying other areas as well as Highway No. 3.

I think there are a lot of questions that remain to be answered about how they are doing this. When Mr. Handley talks about one million dollars for tourism being an awful lot of money, raising $15 million through tolls on the highway is an awful lot of money. Borrowing $100 million and paying it back is a lot of money as well. I think that to borrow it through a user-pay system leaves a lot of unknowns out there, and to a certain extent, there may be some gambling involved. We could probably say that in certain areas, our education system or our health system is badly in need of an overhaul as our highways are.

I live in Hay River, and it has been suggested to me that we have a nice highway all the way into Hay River. I kind of look at it from a different perspective than maybe somebody in Fort Smith or somebody in Yellowknife. That is true. I have stated that in this House before, that we are fortunate in Hay River to have a nice highway coming all the way into the community.

I would also like to say that is probably part of the reason that I went to Hay River, is because of the location. When the capital was moved to Yellowknife, that probably would not have been my choice either to put the capital where it is, where it is not accessible by land for at least two months of the year and sometimes ever longer. However, so be it. Money drove it in those days and money is driving it today.

I also wonder if the capital was not where it is, whether there would be such a push to finish highways to resources as what there is right now. Part of the gamble in the money that has to be paid back is that we still do not know how it is going to affect the clawback. We do not have that answer yet. We certainly do not have the answer on the accumulated affect that it is going to have on the residents to put out a carrot or whatever that you are going to pay back residents for a little bit of cost of fuel, or give them $300 or $150 back. It is a help, and it maybe entices some people to vote for it.

I know that anybody who has seen their propane or electrical bills just about double this winter will tell you that $150 will not go very far towards eliminating the year-round impact that it is having on them. They have not heard all the impacts yet that are coming down, apart from the highway user fees that are going to get trickled back to the consumer.

I would suggest that in the chart that was put out as to what the impact on Hay River residents will be as compared to other residents, that might be a little bit misleading also. I would suspect that a pound of butter will go up the same amount in Hay River as it will in Yellowknife when everything is said and done. It might be a part of Hay River paying as much for getting less, so I do not see it as being a non-concern for Hay River residents.

We heard very loud and clear when we went around doing consultation on the hotel tax that people are very reluctant to see more fees coming their way and having to pay more. We heard it loud and clear many times that the cost of living in the North is already high and we are in a very weak competitive position to try to attract more people here, more workers and more residents. It looks greener when you look at the other side of the border and to go down for the services you are getting and the price you have to pay for them.

I think there is a lot of work that has to be done there and a lot of certainties that have to be cleared up before I can support this on behalf of residents to see what the impact is going to be.

There is also an area that concerns me about the amount of work that the department is planning on doing in such a short period of time, as to how much northern businesses and northern workers are going to benefit from the work that is going to be done here. I do not know how much work, equipment and employees we can supply to get all this work done in that short a period of time. Are Northerners going to get as much benefit out of all this work as is possible? I guess that remains to be seen.

Those are mostly the areas where I have concerns; the amount of work for Northerners and the amount of impact that this is going to have on our residents themselves. I certainly think that it is going to be a much bigger impact than what is being put forth. Although I agree that we have to improve our highway system and once they are in place they will be beneficial to everybody, I still think that we are doing some of the work for the federal government and making it a lot easier for them to say no to us when we are out there trying to get extra money from the federal government. If they can push us and get us to raise our own revenues and tax our own people, I do not see them doing anything different. I think that is probably the way it will be and we are probably setting the stage for that. Those are some of my concerns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.