Mr. Chairman, whenever we do something new, like changing the route of a winter road or putting a bridge across the river, then we want to make sure that we have the support of the community that is impacted by it. With the bridge there is a process and we want to make sure everybody is involved. In that case, the band council and the mayor and council and the Metis Association were all very involved. In the case of the winter roads, the reason for the BCR was because we were asking to change the route of the winter road that would affect the communities who were serviced by that winter road. So, we ask that you make sure that they agreed with this.
We also have had, as I recall, some previous letters, at least, I do not remember if they were BCRs, from the chiefs in some of the communities saying they did not want to have an all-weather road through there. The commitment we made is that if we could get BCRs from the communities we would change the route and use the old Lac la Martre route if that is what the communities wanted us to do.
With regard to building an all-weather road in that area, the offer that was made by the previous Minister of Transportation was, if there was an agreement for an all-weather road we would work with the chief and councils of the representative communities in that area to put forward a proposal to the federal government. That offer still stands. We are prepared to do that. We do not ask this for on-going improvements to existing infrastructure. It is only where we are making a major change to it. Thank you.