Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make a few comments with regard to Public Works and Services, especially the settlement maintainer position. When I did my last tour of Wrigley in January, that position

had still not been staffed. I see that almost 90 percent have been staffed, so if the Minister could let me know if the one in Wrigley was successful in being staffed. It’s something important to the community of Wrigley -- it always has been -- and I’m glad the department has returned that position to Wrigley. The importance of it, as the Members have already explained, is we had a freeze-up of I think it was the water truck two or three weeks ago and that’s something that could have been prevented had the settlement maintainer been there. A role like that is not just for the settlement; it’s fire trucks and anything else that requires at least some level of expertise to look at. The hope is that this person will find in getting something running or maintaining it is just for the betterment of the community. I think one of the words that the Minister used in his opening remarks was being proactive. I certainly look for that position to be staffed and it will certainly be a positive move for the community of Wrigley.

I only want to bring up one other thing. I wrote the Minister on a couple of occasions about the Public Works and Services office in Fort Simpson. They do get their vehicles maintained by the Department of Transportation. I’m thoroughly against that. I oppose that. I do believe we have a policy in utilizing local businesses. There is an automotive business in Fort Simpson that can maintain light vehicles. I would urge the Minister to review that and look at it and say, yeah, okay, Public Works and Services is going to have to use and support local businesses. It’s a proud policy that we have and I’m not too sure why they’re not implementing that in Fort Simpson. If the Minister has some legitimate reasoning for it he can also explain to me how it works in other regions, because I’m certain that’s not the case in other regions. We have to be consistent in delivering our policy. I believe that this department’s got to do the same as well.

Public Works and Services has been instrumental in maintaining a lot of infrastructure in the communities. I just want to say kudos to the staff, as well, because when I do my travelling to the communities, I see the staff travelling to the communities, providing the maintenance work to the schools and health centres and keeping our small communities up and running. That’s just my brief opening remarks.