Thank you. The Minister is right on the button on this one here, Madam Chair. We are starting to get our bridges and we want to look at where our roads are. Certainly, I agree with some of the comments by some of the Members in terms of the road between here and Yellowknife. That is a fairly good road compared to our roads in the Sahtu. That is a smooth road. I think some of the Members need to drive on our winter roads up in the Sahtu; then they can talk about roads. Then, Madam Chair, they could really see the type of roads that our people in the Sahtu region have to drive on. Winter roads, there are roads in other ridings that certainly require some improvement, but gee whiz, our roads are forgotten. They are just like orphaned roads. Last year, I called it the goat road.
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It is a crying shame that all this activity going into our region, to improve our roads up there and have some proper planning in our region. I think somewhere within the department's planning, that we are certainly not getting the attention that we would like to see, the same type of attention that has gone into the Ingraham Trail. Two million dollars into that road. It is nothing there except people living on the road there. There are no oil,
gas and minerals. It is coming into our region. I am sorry to say, Madam Chair. That is the truth here. I can understand there is an oil plan to our gas plant or some mineral activity, but there are cabins out there. People are living out there, and they are paving that road for how many miles? You forget about our road that we have our whole region that has mineral development and mining activities. Madam Chair, I get really passionate. I get really angry inside in terms of seeing that this is still happening in this day and age and that our people have to be so happy that we have roads that go to each other's communities. We shouldn't be driving on roads at 30 kilometres an hour because it is not really a highway. It is a winter road, and you should be happy because you have it open. Yet you pave the road right out here. I call it the best bush road in the Northwest Territories on the Ingraham Trail. I am really happy that the Minister saw some light in support of the bypass in our community, by not having the road go through our community, big trucks. That is a safety concern such as Yellowknife here. They talk about it on TV about big trucks going through their communities. I support that section of Yellowknife where they don't have to have big trucks going through the school ground. That is a safety. Kids' lives are worth it. So things like that, I really think about.
I am really happy that the Minister made a bypass in Tulita and Norman Wells. I am glad. You guys are doing some work. I certainly see that we certainly could use some more improvements. I know you guys are working hard, but come down to or bring your planning people into our communities, sit with our people there, look at some of the roads that could be improved. We could certainly save this department a lot of money. I think we need to show some presence. I hope they establish a regional office in the Sahtu and show some presence that we could have them. I am very surprised they don't have a regional office on the Ingraham Trail to look at that road there. Two million dollars into that road. It is just mind boggling, Madam Chair, to my people in the region.
Madam Chair, I guess I want to ask the Minister in terms of...I will ask him again in terms of our road. Are there some real concrete plans in terms of how we improve our roads for safety? I know there is money being put in there when we have oil development activities into the region in terms of paving our road with water. I think, last year, we surely appreciated it. We felt it this year because there was not so much oil activity, dollars going into our winter roads. Madam Chair, we want to see the benefits of a winter road. I am not too sure about the other regions, but we certainly want to see the benefits of our winter roads. We certainly want to see those bridges go up. I know there were some bridges that were a challenge to put in. I think they are going to look at it again this year. We are about 20 years behind Yellowknife, or 10 years. I hope the Minister can at least give some good news to the people in our region. I am just going to tone it down a little bit now. I drove those winter roads and I know what people are going through. I see the amount of work that is going in there. I hear about the amount of work that is going into other regions. The road from here to Behchoko is good and smooth. I don't know why some of them are complaining about it. Come on our roads and drive it. Then we talk. I have said enough, Madam Chair. I want to give some time to the Minister to respond to some of my comments. Thank you.