Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be reviewing the 2009-10 main estimates for the Department of Transportation. I am glad to see that highways No. 1 and No. 7 will be getting some investment dollars. Once again, it was a huge concern of the constituents and the communities that I represent -- Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte, Fort Simpson, Jean Marie River -- that are really impacted by the failures that occurred last year. I’m glad to see that we’re able to work the concern into the budget and the ministry has addressed them.

The long-term initiative for Highway No. 7 and Highway No. 1, for me -- we call that the Dehcho Connection -- is to move towards eventually chipsealing that loop and it will provide many benefits to the Deh Cho region and the Northwest Territories, much like we talked about the other day how the Mackenzie Valley Highway towards Tuktoyaktuk will increase and stimulate the North. This type of investment in Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 7, I always like to see it part of the strategy that it can and will increase tourism and tourism development of our region. I cannot say it enough on behalf of our constituents that tourists and tourist operators and people with motor homes want to come up here, but word of mouth spreads very, very fast when the roads collapse and they just turn around and go the other way.

One of my constituents has always said, he has contacts in Europe and he said even those guys knew about Highway No. 7 collapsing and it impacted the way they do their business and address their tourists and the directing of tourists to Canada and the Northwest Territories. That’s something that we have to be very mindful of and continue to invest those dollars into reconstructing and rebuilding those sections of our highway.

Most particularly it would be Highway No. 7. I know there were some interim measures done last year and I’m really looking forward to the type of investment that we’re going to do in Fort Liard and Highway No. 7. The community is quite excited that there are additional dollars this fiscal year to address those concerns. I think the key thing here, too, is to ensure that we do have the workforce to complete the work that’s done. I know in other infrastructure projects with our government that we often get challenged by enough contractors and professionals to complete the work that we have laid out for us. I’m hoping the department has a good strategy in place to spend as much of our investment dollars on our highways and get them completed during the construction season of the spring, summer and fall months.

I also spoke this week and last week about the business planning cycle and capital planning process about getting a bird’s eye view cost of the Liard Bridge at Fort Simpson. I think that’s something that has been put off for a while. I know there were some cost estimates from the ‘60s or ‘70s, maybe even ‘80s. I think I requested the Minister to provide those to me. I’ll be very glad to see those. At the same time we have to do at least Class D estimates. That’s going to cost and take some resources. My experience is out of a $100,000 commitment we’ll do that, but I would certainly urge the department to kind of look towards that.

As well, I’d like to commend the department for taking care of the needs of the smaller communities like Nahanni Butte and Jean Marie River. They don’t have highway systems, but they have seasonal roads. We continue to invest in those. That’s something the communities depend on. That’s their road out of the community. The little work that we do replacing the odd culvert here and there on those access roads is a huge stimulus package for them. A culvert program of $50,000 goes a long ways in a small community like Jean Marie River by providing income and revenue for local companies. I would continue to urge that with respect to Jean Marie River. As well as the Nahanni Butte completion of the access road there. I believe that you can do a lot of work this coming summer with regard to that.

I’d just like to maybe touch a bit on our ferry situation. Last summer the ferry being on the demand system worked out well for the benefit of constituents. They didn’t feel pressured that they had to make an increased speed and make it to the ferry’s schedule on an hourly basis. It really alleviated that. I’ve always said, I don’t know if we can prove it, I always said if we could prove it, I would gladly produce some documents that showed an increase of accidents as a result of going to an hourly ferry schedule. That’s something I would urge, I know there may be some pressures again this coming summer, but I would urge the department to stay away from that. There are some studies. In fact, the people who deliver fuel know that it wasn’t actually saving that much fuel, which was one of the key deciding factors of that program. At the same time, for public safety and efficient transportation system, I believe that staying on the demand system is the best for the Fort Liard ferry crossing.

I’ll just conclude my opening remarks with that.