Mr. Speaker, last year I announced this government's intention to undertake an ambitious program of investment in the Northwest Territories' highway system. We proposed to invest $100 million over four years toupgrade territorial roads. Much of the work proposed was needed to cope with the ever-increasing effects of resource development traffic, to improve safety and to stimulate economic growth and expansion.

To finance the strategy, we proposed the introduction of a highway trip permit fee on commercial trucking in the Northwest Territories. The fee was not our first, nor even our second choice for raising the needed funding. Our first choice was to convince the federal government that it should reinvest some of the growing resource revenues they were raising in the Northwest Territories. Our second choice was to find ways to finance these highway investments from general government revenues. However, health, education and other critical social demands on scarce government resources take higher priority.

As Members are aware, Mr. Speaker, while almost everyone agrees that our roads urgently need an investment of this magnitude, many people expressed concern over the impact of the proposed fee on the cost of living in the North. As a result of the many concerns we heard, the government chose not to proceed with the highway trip permit fee legislation last session. We were prepared to give Northerners time to develop and propose alternatives.

This will not change our goal to improve our highway infrastructure through the use of Northwest Territories businesses and workers. Not only is an upgraded highway system necessary to ensure the safety of the travelling public, it is an essential element for resource development and economic growth in the Northwest Territories.

The current fiscal position of the GNWT enables us to make some one-time capital investments in the existing territorial highway system. I am pleased to announce that a $33 million highway investment is proposed in this budget for 2002-2003, including $2.5 million to upgrade access roads.

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That is $15 million in new money.

Not only will this investment provide the needed funds to preserve the existing essential infrastructure and facilities, but it will also be distributed across the highway network to improve highways linking communities and residents of the Northwest Territories.

The government is pursuing alternatives to pay for needed highway improvements and is actively engaging stakeholders in the process of identifying the best means of funding highway infrastructure. The Department of Transportation is supporting the Northern Business Coalition, which is led by the NWT Chamber of Commerce and includes a number of other territorial stakeholder organizations, in their lobby effort to seek federal investment in Northwest Territories infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, population, industry and traffic have all increased dramatically in the North Slave region. Interest rates are attractive. We are exploring the possibilities suggested through the Fort Providence Betterment Corporation's proposal to build a bridge over the Mackenzie River at the Fort Providence crossing.

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This proposal calls for some federal equity contribution, the dedication of Northwest Territories ferry and ice road savings, and an ongoing contribution from the beneficiaries of a bridge -- the people and businesses of the North Slave Region. The proposal has the potential to serve as a template for partially financing regional infrastructure investments that would otherwise not be made. If we can find a workable financing model, its application throughout the Northwest Territories may allow substantive protection of, and improvements in, regional transportation infrastructure.