Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 8-9, Mr. Chairman, is quite a bit of detail about the, oh gosh, there's probably 15 or 18 projects for the $37 million projected for highway projects this year. Mr. Chairman, if we look at the three-year budget projections plus future years, these projects combine for a breathtaking $183 million in projected spending. We look forward to every penny, Mr. Chairman, being well spent. The specific question that I have, and I know that other Members have asked this or have asked questions about the Mackenzie Valley winter road bridge program, and I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, if I'm going to be repeating a line of questioning here.

But I did want to see if we could look at the aspect of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline and the continuance of that whole project. Much of the impetus behind the winter road bridge program is to be prepared for that project and the, not just building the main big pipeline, but the continuance of exploration and things that we know or that we hope will happen afterward. Mr. Chairman, this year alone we're looking at spending $13 million on Mackenzie winter bridge projects. The combined total for this after 2010 is $31 million.

Mr. Chairman, my question is if at some point in the near or far future we learn that the Mackenzie Valley pipeline is not to be committed to, are we still going to continue with these expenditures even though the main economic reason for putting them in is no longer going to be on the table?