Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to inform the House that on Friday afternoon, February 23, 2001, the Department of Transportation officially opened the new winter road linking the communities of Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. This newest section of winter road is the first addition to the winter road system since it reached Fort Good Hope from Norman Wells in 1985. With this latest addition of 165 kilometres, the territorial winter road system now has a total length of 1,469 kilometres.

Mr. Speaker, the construction of this new winter road has been a good example of local initiative and cooperation amongst community groups and between communities as well as substantial material and financial contributions from private sector companies.

I want to congratulate Chief Richard Kochon and band manager Joseph Kochon of the Behdzi Ahda First Nation of Colville Lake for taking the lead in this project from the original proposal through to Friday's opening. The Behdzi Ahda First Nation was awarded a contract for $195,000 to build the road and has acted as the department's principal contracting agent throughout. The project included the coordination of crews working at either end from Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope to speed the work along.

The success of the project required the positive cooperation and contributions of Chief Delphine Pierrot of the K'asho Got'ine Charter Community Council, as well as the Ayoni Key Land Corporation, the Yamogo Land Corporation and the Fort Good Hope Metis Local No. 54 Land Corporation.

The opening of the Colville Lake - Fort Good Hope winter road was also a remarkable first for the constructive and generous participation of the two exploration companies working this winter road in the area; Paramount Resources and Canadian National Resources, both of Calgary, Alberta. The two companies agreed to contribute approximately $100,000 each towards the construction of the road, either in actual money or the equivalent dollar value in equipment and labour. With the private sector's substantial participation, the department was able to carry out twice the work it had expected to accomplish in preparing and improving the right-of-way in the first year of the road's operation.

Once again, I would like to congratulate all those who were involved in building this successful new extension to the Northwest Territories' winter road system. Weather permitting, the Colville Lake - Fort Good Hope winter road will remain open until Saturday, March 31, 2001. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause