Mr. Yakeleya, my mistake, I missed an item on the order paper. So we will go back to recognition of visitors in the gallery and then come back to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize in the gallery my father, David Roland, and my partner, my wife, Shawna. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Premier, Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to recognize my constituent Major Karen Hoeft. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

I would just like to recognize the other people up there who haven't gotten recognized. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Certainly we welcome everyone in the gallery. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly. I'm going to apologize again. We'll go to item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement earlier today I put the Minister of Transportation on notice of my objection to the reallocation of $1 million in the Mackenzie Valley winter road bridge project. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are to the Minister of Transportation. Can the Minister assure me that the $1 million reduction to the budget, with great improvements to 2004-2005 Mackenzie Valley winter road this program, will have no effect of the timing of the completion of the project as a whole? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is quite correct. We did, as per our Financial Administrative Act, notify the Member that we would be moving some money out of his riding to be redirected towards the Highway No. 1 upgrades. We are moving money that was targeted for the Mackenzie Valley road program towards realignment and we don't feel that it will have a negative factor to the projects that are happening in that riding. There are still plans to spend $5 million this year, including the Sahtu. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a letter from the Town of Norman Wells saying that the activity in the Sahtu will be increasing. Can the Minister provide me with some estimation of what the effects of are moving $1 million from the grading portion of the Mackenzie winter road bridge program will have? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also have letters from other jurisdictions indicating we need investment in their roads and, of course, we only have so much money. Mr. Speaker, we have plans to invest $40 million into the Sahtu roads. We have met with the GED committee and they have advised us that some of our investments should be moved. This year we decided to move $1 million out of the Sahtu, we also are planning to move money out of the Ingraham Trail program into Highway No. 1. Last year, we moved money into Highway No. 7. We have to be able to react and deal with the resources impact in all the different ridings on all the different highways. We don't believe this is going to have a negative impact. As I indicated earlier, this money was targeted for realignment of some of the ice roads and some of the grade work, and we don't think it will have a great impact. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Why then, Mr. Speaker, did the Minister put the money there in the first place? Certainly there was a reason based on that decision to allocate $1 million for a particular project, or am I to understand that the capital infrastructure fund is arbitrarily set and arbitrarily changed on a year-to-year or month-to-month basis? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, this money for investment in the winter road program is part of the NWT/Canada Strategic Infrastructure Program. Our areas of investment were decided through a proposal called Corridors to Canada where a number of different areas were identified and accepted by the government. Since then we have had changes in resource developed related impacts in the North and we've had to make some changes. We've discussed this with our partners, the Government of Canada, and to date have moved some money into Highway No. 7, the Liard Trail, and are also planning to invest money on Highway No. 1. We have to recognize that the impact is happening all along Highway No. 1 as it leads into the Sahtu, and the road is becoming a safety issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide some degree of assurance to the people in the Sahtu who travel those roads on a regular basis, when there's a winter road in the Sahtu that we're moving $1 million from the budget in this year's portion for the grading that it will have no affect on the safety of the highway and the safety of the people in the Sahtu who use that highway? As I indicated, there's a letter that was faxed to me by the Town of Norman Wells asking for signs of safety in the Sahtu region. Now we have no money for signage, so can the Minister assure me that reallocating the dollars from this project into other regions will not affect the safety of the people in the Sahtu? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, our plans are to construct 23 bridges in the Sahtu in the next five years, and we're planning to invest a total of $41 million into that riding. We feel that will significantly improve the safety and the condition of that road and increase the season. I can assure the Member that over the next few years the road will continue to get better, and that safety will be less and less of an issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins. There's a Point of Order. What's your Point of Order, Mrs. Groenewegen?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to raise a Point of Order that when Ministers share information with standing committees like GED or the Social Programs committee, that we are obliged to keep that information to ourselves and not to raise it in direct reference in the House in order to obtain information about future years' plans. I want to raise this because Minister McLeod was just referencing the plan and decisions of his department. He made reference to the fact that these were discussed with the GED and the GED approved them, and it makes it sound as if this was done at the initiative of a standing committee, as opposed to the department. We share information in the standing committees, but referring to decisions in direct reference to consultation of information that happened and communication that happened within the standing committee is inappropriate in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause