Mr. Chairman, I’d like to say that we are challenged very, very uniquely in terms of building roads in the Northwest Territories.

The road that was built, Highway No. 3 — I’m very confident it was built to the best of the ability that the Northwest Territories builders can build a road. That road is very good. I have seen roads in the Northwest Territories that we are reconstructing right now. People in those regions would appreciate that we continue to reconstruct the roads.

I would say also to the drivers on all our roads to drive to the conditions of the road, to the speeds of the road, and know that we are continuing working on our roads, here on Highway No. 3. I know there’s lot of people who travel. I do travel, my family does travel, and my family does travel on Highway No. 3. We see the workers out there.

We are doing the best we can in terms of balancing our investments right across the Northwest Territories to ensure that everybody has the ability to enjoy their existing roads. We’re protecting that infrastructure. We’re going to continue to invest right across the board to see that people right across the North enjoy the roads they have right now and also to improve them. I appreciate the people from Yellowknife in terms of the many travellers we get here. We’ll continue working on the roads, on what we can to do to improve.

We’re also very open to look at new initiatives, new technology in terms of how to deal with the perma-frost, how to deal with the thousands of trucks that come by here from the mining companies. We are looking at ways we could improve our roads system. I think the people in this area are very lucky because of the quality of work that has been done on these roads. We will continue to improve, and I hope that through this budget process you would give us the opportunity either to build or not to build in the North.