Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have over the last number of years invested very significantly in the area of Sahtu. It has probably received the most investment in terms of bridge work. We put in many bridges that would see the road season extended so that people could take advantage of it, and the oil and gas industry can also utilize this piece of winter road. We also had partnerships with many of the companies that the Member has mentioned to enhance the road, to keep it safe, to keep it stable and also to extend the season.

The Bear River Bridge is a project that has had money identified through the strategic investment fund. It is a project that has tripled in cost, and we no longer have resources identified to move forward with this project. Until that changes, we are going to have some difficulty agreeing that we will invest in that project. If we wanted to bring it into the Building Canada Fund, we would probably have to take half of what our budget is for transportation investment and put it into one project. It is a project that was de-scoped, because we didn’t have the resources to do it, to bring it forward. It’s not an easy decision to make to move away from a project.

We recognize that this would allow the winter road season in the Sahtu to be extended, to open it up a little earlier. But we’ve taken the initiative to create bypass roads. We have taken the initiative to invest

in building a road across the ice that would also open the winter road traffic earlier. We’ve tried to do things to accommodate and help the people in that area and also industry, but right now we are not in a position…. We don’t have the resources to build the Bear River Bridge. The money that was in that area has been reinvested in other areas, as the Member has indicated.

We can’t allow steel that was purchased to be sitting there when we were just criticized for the Oscar Creek Bridge — having infrastructure that we haven’t been able to put in place soon enough or quick enough. I’m sure we would certainly be criticized for leaving steel lying on the ground in Tulita because we didn’t have the resources to put it up.

It’s still something we’d like to do. We hope, as we move forward with discussions and options for the Mackenzie Valley road with the federal government, that this would be part of it. But until then we don’t have the resources, and we can’t comfortably say to the Member that we will be doing the Bear River Bridge within the life of this government.