Mr. Chair, just one comment here I want to make and it’s going to be very short. I want to say in terms of the Deh Cho Bridge in terms of this project here, it’s something that I want to say, Mr. Chair, that when the ferry was out of commission, when they had to fly food into Yellowknife and then fly it up to one of my constituents, in their home town, they realized that the increase in price went up very high. When the ferry was back in, the constituent phoned me back and said our prices in the store went down. That’s the phone call that I got from a constituent. So the constituent said even though we would like to see bridges built in the Sahtu along the road, this P3 project here is going ahead. There are lots of questions there, but I just want to let you know that it’s an observation he made. He called me on that and he said just get the bridge built and start working on the Mackenzie Valley Highway and other bridges. So I wanted to say that to the Minister here. There are lots of discussions, lots of issues around it, but I think that’s something that we should really look at in terms of this bridge here. This is from a Sahtu constituent in my riding that wanted me to relay the message, so I wanted to say that to the Minister that this is important.
There are certainly a lot of interpretations, lots of views in my region as to why we’re building this bridge and why we should put all this money into the bridge. I think I want to see the benefits of the bridge and how it’s going to impact the Sahtu. But that’s one comment I got from a constituent that said we’ve seen the difference, so if the bridge is going to bring prices down in my community, lower the cost of living, you know, finish off the bridge, get it done, and start working on other areas here. I think you’re going to have some good lessons to learn on this one here.
For myself, I’m going to continue to support the construction of the bridge here. As people in Fort Providence, I talked to people in Fort Providence and they also said to us to work with them and to continue. Actually, an elder told me this about this, so I have to listen to what that elder says in Fort Providence about this bridge here. So I think your department is learning some hard lessons here and I think you need to get the job done. I wanted to ask more questions but I’m going to leave it at the, Mr. Chair, because it’s going to open up a lot of other questions that maybe we can talk about later on.