Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, if I could respond to the Member as he brought the issues up, the access road improvement on the Hay River Reserve. The Member is correct in that the department in the past has indicated that with the capital funding we had at that time, and because the traffic volume on that reserve road was low, we had a low priority for improvements on that road comparable with the rest of the highways in the Territories, taking into consideration the traffic volumes. However, if this proposal that we have put forward to increase capital expenditures and the option of toll charging as a revenue source, if this comes into play, it takes some pressure off of our other capital expenditures.

Although we have identified these capital expenditures in our five-year capital plan, there is the flexibility that with this new revenue, we could see ourselves moving up improvements on the Hay River Reserve. We could do that at an earlier date. I could commit the department will look at what is involved in improving that road. The Members have continuously mentioned it even in the past government. So I could commit to the department doing the engineering aspect of this and looking to see what it needs on this road.

I can also respond to the Member's concern that last year we were saying that contractors did not have the capability to respond to our tenders. In fact, what we were getting indications of at that time, there were no other activities going on in the Territories and our contractors were down to the limits. We were competing with the mines. To some degree, we are still doing that, but the difference is we are suggesting to the contractors that this is not just a one-time thing. This is an ongoing thing where they can do some investing of their own and expand their operation to allow them to be able to put in tenders.

There is also the option of partnerships. There are different options now that were not there before. As far as we are concerned, we are getting indications from the contractors now that they are capable of taking on this work and that is good, because it will help the local economy. It is our intent to try to spread this work locally.

As far as the Providence bridge project, the department is not in any competition with the community to put this bridge up. If the community does find a source of funding other than what we have through Indian Affairs or whoever, and they have a viable toll program that can set the bridge up, we are not interfering. As a matter of fact, we would be open to see how the proposal and how we could involve it in our highway infrastructure, because it would become part of our highway. At this point in time, through the highway investment program that we are talking about here, we are looking at this bridge project being moved up. The capability of taking it on in five years rather than 20 years is there if we can have this project go ahead.

Before that, we could not even look at it. We just did not have the capacity to do it with the funding we have. We should take into consideration that even with revenue sharing, it may be a while before we have the capability of taking on a large project like this bridge.

The last concern the Member expressed is my source of information for his road. I do not argue that he is getting his information from his researcher from the same department that I get it from. What we found is that the RCMP, when they make their reports, sometimes they refer to it as an access road, sometimes they refer to it as the village road. So in fact, there were 14 accidents. Some of them were right in front of people's houses, but they were still listed as being on the access road. So there were 14 accidents. There was one fatality and, Mr. Chairman, I am responding to the Member through an oral question tomorrow. So the rest of the information will be available for the Member tomorrow.