The department has not been able to tell me what other jurisdictions charge for their manuals. I would be interested in receiving that information. Perhaps I could seek a commitment from the Minister to provide that information to me within the next day or two, please?

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, we could commit to that.

Thank you. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes all my questions.

Thank you. Mr. Bell.

Thank you. I would like to see if I can get an answer from the Minister. I want to speak generally to the virtual onslaught of tolls and fees proposed by the department. When we first saw the Highway Strategy last year -- Mr. McLeod has already made this point -- when you looked at the possible scenario of speeding up Highway No. 3 reconstruction, taking it from a proposed ten-year timeline to a three-year proposed timeline, there were various rationales given for why this was not feasible. Some of them seemed more believable to me than others.

Money certainly was the main one, but there were other things - training opportunities for Northerners would be missed if we sped up the timeline, northern companies would not have the capacity, so southern equipment and labour would have to be used if we went from ten to three years, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. McLeod asked the Minister about this yesterday, and to quote him in Hansard, he said:

"To some degree, we are still doing that. 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 put in the tenders."

What he is saying is now that we are talking about a four-year program that all of a sudden northern companies have the capacity to deal with this. However, in the Highway Strategy, when the scenario of three years was looked at, it was virtually impossible because there was no way we had the capacity. I did not believe it then and I do not think I believe it now. I think it is all about money. When I see this onslaught of tolls and fees, that further reinforces that feeling. I wonder if the Minister could speak to that.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I do not understand what I said yesterday has to do with the revenue section that the Member is talking about. I do not see any reference to tolls or the topic the Member was talking about in this revenue section here.

I will allow the Member to clarify. I thought he was finding a new way to generate revenues. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess in either case I am on the record, so really it is a moot point. Let me try to rephrase and put it to him another way. We were talking about the imposition of tolls and fees and why they had come about, and trying to find some sort of rationale for this. The Minister, in speaking to speed up the programs, said before when we were looking at speeding up Highway No. 3 reconstruction from a ten to a three-year timeline, yes, we did not have the money. However, there were many other reasons too, such as northern companies did not have the capacity, southern equipment and labour would have to be used, training opportunities for Northerners would be missed. I think these kinds of things made us stop and take note and say maybe it is not such a great thing.

I always believed it was only ever about money. Now they seem to have figured out a way to charge us and raise some money. We are only talking here now about a one year difference in timelines. We have a four-year plan and now that the Minister is suggesting that we can say to these contractors this is an ongoing thing, so they are going to be able to ramp up and have the ability now to have the capacity.

The scenario on the Highway Strategy was a three-year plan. I do not see the difference between three and four years being about capacity. I think this is simply about money. Now that we have come up with a proposal to raise money, we are willing to look at this scenario. Is that not in fact the case?

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, again I make my point that I do not understand what the comments from the Member have to do with revenue recoveries. There is no mention of tolls here.

However, I want to respond to the Member's comments. There is a difference between accelerating from three years instead of doing it in four years. There is a whole lot of difference in how much we are trying to do in three years versus spreading it over the four-year period.

No doubt the Member is correct. One of the major problems with reconstructing in the past was finding the funding to do the job. That was a major factor. However, in our past tendering, we did get indications from the construction industry that there was the capacity there and therefore, there was the ability to increase the amount of work we could tender per year.

We got back from the construction industry that there was the capacity out there to do the job. We were concerned in the past that we were competing with the mines for the services of these companies. That was a concern of the department. I think we received some indication that a lot of the work that is going to the mines is in fact not from local companies, but from outside the Territories. There was the capacity there. I do not know how else I can respond to the Members concerns here under recovery.

Revenues, recoveries, transfer payments. Agreed?

Moving to page 10-7, department summary, operations expense, total operations expense, $70,140,000.

Now we will move to capital, which is at the back of your binder, page 15. Transportation, capitalization plan, ferries, total ferries, program, $50,000. Agreed?

Highways, total highways, $27,269,000. Agreed?

We are on capital, page 19, airports, total airports, $11,240,000. Agreed?

Motor vehicles, $500,000. Agreed?