Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member brings forward a real concern, and that's the weather that's been really hampering all our winter roads and all our ice bridges. In some areas, especially down the winter road, the weather has really challenged us. This is the first time that we've ever had to bring in spray pumps from the south side of the Territories into that area to build up the ice so that we can get access into the community and into some of the area for resource development.

We're also being very challenged in the building of the road to Wekweeti, and it's become very obvious that it's going to be a concern this year about the ability to get that road completed. We've seen a number of pieces of equipment go through the ice and we've also seen some of the creeks that were frozen three weeks ago now are flowing already. So it really brings concern about other areas.

The concern on the roads to the diamond mines is something also that is of concern to the diamond companies. It is now open to partial loads. I think it's up to 60 percent, or around that area, for the load capacity that they're bringing in. It's allowing them to haul partial loads and get fuel into the mines and it's probably still cheaper than flying it in, but it's a concern.

Whether bridges are going to be the answer, I don't know. A good portion of that winter road is built on ice and we would really have to take a look, or they would have to take a look at a different route. I don't know if that's possible to put in all the different bridges. We are looking at some small initiatives to see how we can deal with ice conditions.

There are companies out there that are coming forward with different creative innovative measures of trying to look at making the road last longer or getting on the ice faster. We are trying at least one of them with a company that's producing mats to see if that would work to save from mud being tracked onto the ice. There are also mats that have refrigerated units attached to it. So there's things out there that we're looking at with interest.

But overall, we haven't looked at bridges for the winter road. We have, though, been looking at increasing and looking at the all-weather road portion on the Ingraham Trail and see if that would make sense to extend that portion. That's the extent of what we're doing there, Madam Chair.