Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If the Minister would look back at all the correspondence and all the information that I sent to him, there are some BCRs in there. The last time we did speak on this issue he said he needed new BCRs. He had BCRs, the previous Minister had BCRs from me and I gave him some BCRs. His department has that information.
As to the previous BCRs where the bands said they did not want a road, I think those date back 10 years or more when the cost of freight and travel was not so high. Now we have the cost of travel going up. It is going to go up even more once they build that bridge because the North Slave people have to pay for that bridge. We are the ones that are going to pay for it. Every truck is going to cost over $500 to cross and everybody is going to pay six cents on top of every milk carton, egg or whatever in the North Slave. Especially the ones in the outlying communities like Lutselk'e and Gameti, Wekweti. They are going to take the big brunt of the cost because the cost of airline fuel is going to cost higher, so the freight is going to go higher.
So, somebody is saying it is not going to cost so much for North Slave. It is going to break even. It is not true. It might break even for Yellowknifers, but not for those four communities, the five communities around Yellowknife. They are going to take the big brunt of the cost. I would like to ask the Minister if he will work with the other Ministers to off-set the cost. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is the guy that is going to bring the food baskets up if it is needed up in the communities. He is the guy who is going to look at the food baskets. Then you have the thing of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, how it is going to affect the people in that region. It might be great for tourism. Maybe it is time that the road was built so that tourism could be in the rest of the North Slave communities and not just Yellowknife.
So, these are a lot of things that we have to look at. Sitting on a 10-year-old BCR and using that for an excuse, it does not fly with me, because you have had previous ones since then from all the communities and even from Rae-Edzo supporting them. So, I think maybe it is time to get off the old BCRs and take them where they belong. You have new ones to replace them. Let us put the money, let us spread the wealth. That is what I mean. Spread the wealth. Put the roads in so the freight costs do not affect the people once the bridge is put in. Thank you.