Mr. Speaker, the monies that come for some of the programs that are being unveiled by the federal government, such as the MRIF and the gas tax, come with certain conditions and criteria. Although we're quite familiar and quite certain with what the conditions and criteria the MRIF money will be tied to, the gas tax is not something we have an agreement on and we have only started negotiations last week. We can safely say that some of the money can be spent in the area of roads and bridges, however, most of the dollars will be earmarked towards sustainable infrastructure. I don't have a definition of what that could mean and could include at this point.

It's difficult to answer the questions regarding whether this can be spent on chipseal. My guess would be that it couldn't be, but it probably could help us in stabilizing the base of the road or providing some of the upkeep and doing some of the drainage work that is needed. That has yet to be determined. We should have some answers, as I indicated to some of the other Members, by the end of March or early April. We should also have our study in place that gives us some options of how we can deal with dust in the communities. We have done a number of roads in communities and in some cases it really has not made a whole lot of difference when we pave one street and all the other streets are still not being treated with any type of dust suppressant. I should point out to the Member

though, in our community government funding we do provide some monies to the communities to put calcium or some type of dust control on the roads. That money is already there. The chipsealing program is over and above that and it was planned to be a top-up and most communities are now looking at it as the only method of doing some dust control. That shouldn't be the case. There are still dollars in their funding to buy their own calcium or do their own dust control treatment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.