Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, like the Member, we share Mr. Diefenbaker's vision to see an all-weather road along the Mackenzie Valley.

---Applause

However, the final decision is not ours to make. We continue to seek funding to improve the road system, extend the season and put the bridge into the Mackenzie Valley winter road. However, we need the federal government onside to provide the dollars to bring it to the point where it is an all-weather road. It's something we strive towards. We've used every avenue that we have to bring that message to Ottawa. We have included it in our long-term strategy. We have a document called Investing in Roads that was put together in 2000 that has the strategy in there to include the Mackenzie Valley winter road, the Tuk road and all other roads that are needed in the NWT.

We are also dealing with this road when we discuss the resource development impacts that are happening in the Northwest Territories. We have raised it with the pipeline proponents. We have increasing meetings with all

developers in the area to see if we can partner with them to raise some funds.

We are also developing a new proposal that we will be sharing with committee that looks at putting a request in to the federal government again along the same lines as the Corridors for Canada.

We also had our Premier raise this issue at his Western Premiers Conference. So we are using every avenue we have out there to bring the message to the federal government and we certainly agree with the Member that this is a well needed structured road that has to be continued to be improved to the point where it's an all-weather road. Thank you.