Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a lot of new Members in this House. This program was first put in place in 2003–2004. It put chipseal in several communities: Kakisa, Fort Providence, Fort Good Hope, Fort Resolution, Fort McPherson, Tuktoyaktuk. Yet there were other communities that were also on the list, but because of a change in program responsibility by way of community empowerment or operating.... I think that to be fair to those other communities, where they were able to access federal dollars and also able to work through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, this was shown to have improved the quality of life in those communities.
I’d also mention that there was a motion passed in the 14th Assembly in which from a special
committee we requested the government to implement such a program. Mr. Chair, the main reason I’m moving this motion is that I believe that for small communities where dust is an issue we have to find an alternative, and this is one of the alternatives. I’d like that to be considered by this department so they can reinstate such a program and so it can assist other communities that haven’t had that opportunity.