Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to offer a few comments on the Department of Transportation, as well. First, I want to speak about the highway issue. The first one is the Mackenzie Valley highway. I want to put on record that I think that is an important project that I would like to see advanced. I think one of the surprising things that I read in the budget statement was the fact that we have not seen one single new kilometre of road built since 1988. Given how much the North has grown since then, I find that hard to believe. Also, I don't think the Mackenzie pipeline of the socio-economic agreement includes anything about highways. I don't really know why that sort of thing would not be in there if we can't leverage resource revenue sharing or something like that into such an agreement, because it is such a larger project and it is dealing with other processes, but one would think...I think the proposal has been made that in order to build the highway, they are going to need access to it. I would think that Cece McCauley will tell you that would be the right time to build a road at the same time. I don't think the federal government will come and tell us, okay, we want the pipeline, so we will build your road. You have to ask and fight for every one of those, so maybe there is some inkling of hope in the agreement. I do not know, but I think it is one thing we have to work on and I am in full support of. In saying that, I want to say that it may be hard to believe.

I don't think I have been here that long. This is my seventh year. I was constantly asking questions about Highway No. 3 when I first got elected. In fact, my first newsletter was like a newspaper size and it had a double side of the whole issue on Highway No. 3. The title was something like, Winding, Crooked Road or something and it had a picture of Highway No. 3. I just want to say that I remember, and I am old enough to remember. I have been here long enough to remember what that Highway No. 3 was like between Behchoko and Yellowknife.

I really want to commend the department for the work that has been done to finish that. It really is a beautiful road. I guess the better part of Highway No. 3 is between Providence and Behchoko. I think because of the topography or the ease of the weight, the land is set up, it is just a smoother road. It is a wider road. It is a beautiful

road, but from Behchoko to Yellowknife, I know my friends in Behchoko may not agree with this, but I think there's been so much more improvement there than we have ever had. I drove there most recently in December. I did see some rough parts. There were some soft areas, but you have to slow down. Honestly. I drove through Ontario one time and if you combine all the roads under construction, it would combine to at least 1,000 kilometres, because there was so much construction in every place. Once you build a road, there are some parts always under construction. I know that I do my share of pounding the table here asking for things, but I do want to take a moment to really appreciate the work the government has done on Highway No. 3.

For years, that highway took a huge chunk of highway budget. My argument was always once we finish this, we should have more money to build other roads. So I would like to think that having completed that has provided room for other areas of roads. I think that everybody should just slow down and protect that road that we spent I think 25 years and at least $100 million to build.

The second thing is the Kam Lake access road. It is something that we really need to work on. I do understand that it is within municipal boundaries for the most part and it will probably have to cross claimed area or designated area. I just don't think it is fair for the truck drivers or for the residents in the current space that it is now. I forget about the truck traffic until the winter roads start up and when you are trying to rush to work, you are surrounded by the trucks. I don't mind that because every time I see the trucks, I see money. It is our diamond industry. They could have thousands of trucks here if they want. I just need to slow down. I think there is a tolerance level and safety issues if these trucks keep going through town. Pretty soon that Old Airport Road will not be able to handle that. So I would really urge the Minister and the government to work with all of the other partners or aboriginal governments and the City of Yellowknife to see if we could work on an arrangement on that. I would love to see a truck stop where all of these trucks could come and fuel and rest before they go on the ice road. That is an important part.

With respect to the road to resources, the Minister made a statement earlier today that there will be a study done to see the feasibility of having roads built in Tlicho. I am waiting to see what will come out of that. I don't know what the details of that are. Any study or something like that would have to, and I would want to ask the Minister to make sure that there is a cost-benefit analysis to where the best road to resources should be at and the fact that there are existing road systems. I think industries have a lot of say in that because they are already spending a lot of money to transport the fuel and other supplies that they need. I think they are thinking about doing an all-weather road in some of the soft areas so that you could extend the ice road. I guess the earth part warms up faster than the lake and so if you could have an all-weather system into some of the more vulnerable spots, you could extend the road. I think the way they figured it out so cleverly, as the private market always does when they are under pressure, they have built the secondary road to withstand the demands of supplies more. I think the department will do well to work closely with the industry and our friends and partners in the Tlicho area to see a real cost-benefit analysis. Maybe there could be a loop, but the bottom line is we only have limited resources for roads. I know there are a lot of needs all over the North. We need to make all of the communities accessible. I would like the study to keep in mind where the money can be best spent. Also, we need to support the industry as well, because they are here creating a lot of benefits for us. I would like to leave it at that. I will be watching closely at that study to see the extent that a cost-benefit analysis is being done, not just in this area but how to best spend the government money.

The last thing I want to mention is the airport. I am not familiar enough on where the department is at in terms of just listening to the Minister's opening statement, but there has been an ongoing issue about extending a runway in Yellowknife to allow some of the bigger aircrafts to come in. I don't think that is a Yellowknife issue. I don't think that should be looked at as a Yellowknife issue. The fact is, Yellowknife Airport is the biggest airport in the Territories. It has the most traffic. When we were in communities like Wekweeti or other communities surrounding this area, there are a lot of tourism possibilities for these communities if they could be given a little bit of help. Because we are located geographically more conveniently than even northern parts of the States, to be the gateway from Asia and the other side of the world, they could land in Yellowknife and go to the rest of North America. If that is the case and we get more people coming through this way, they will spend less time. The visitors from Japan, if they have in their limited time, or Germany...from Europe and Asia, they could all come here as a one-stop to Yellowknife, there is a much more of a chance that they would be able to go to other communities here, but if it takes them two days to get to Yellowknife, you know they are going to spend two days in Yellowknife and go back. But if they could get here in 8, 10 or 12 hours, I see such potential for our surrounding communities in Yellowknife to be at the centre of that eco-tourism. There is so much for us to offer. I would also like the government to look at extension of the Yellowknife Airport runway as something that would be beneficial to all of the North, the tourism industry, oil and gas, pipeline, when they are coming. Why can we not be the real gateway and take that title away from Edmonton or even from Chicago? We could do that. I don't think it is going to cost a whole lot of money either. I welcome the Minister to make any replies to that. Those are my opening comments. Thank you.