Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since 1995–1996 and 2004–2005, this department has been working with the community of Aklavik on the ATV community access road project. In 2001 the community of Aklavik requested that the department relook at the ATV trail and convert it into an all-weather road to the source that Mr. Krutko made reference to, at Willow River.
This department has been listening to the community of Aklavik and the communities down the Mackenzie Valley. We have spent $309,000 on this access road now that’s been determined.
We are committed to building partnerships with industry at the level of government, such as mentioned yesterday by the Finance Minister, and some of the partnerships are going under the Building Canada Fund.
We are very much interested in going back into Aklavik, relooking at the request, and sitting down with the community. The Member and I had some discussions on when we could get into Aklavik and
have a community discussion in terms of what can we do to look at their needs. We also need to talk with the community in terms of their gravel sources, as to who does this. We've stated that they're now responsible for such projects as gravel sources. It will be coming up in our discussions with my officials. We are prepared to go in to the Member’s riding.