Mr. Speaker, the concept of a highway down the Mackenzie Valley has been around for many, many years, even from way back as far as the Diefenbaker days. The idea has been brought forward from the Government of the Northwest Territories on many occasions. Almost at every Assembly there’s been strategies developed over the years and they have included the concept of a highway, and we’ve indicated that there is a desire to see this move forward. Documents such as Corridors for Canada were drafted and included highways and to really no avail. It’s our interpretation that maybe we needed to do more work to build a business case, which includes the economic analysis, project description reports that we’re moving forward on.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly don’t want the Member to start thinking about going west when we should be going east to get further investment. I’ve seen and tracked the Member’s ventures on the CANOL Trail over the last three years. He’s been trying to walk that stretch of the highway. He’s shared some of the pictures and he seems to be riding a horse every time.

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Mr. Speaker, there is a real need for the federal government to invest in this highway. We have taken every occasion that we had to bring the case forward. We have tried in different formats. We tried to bring it forward as a sovereignty issue. We brought it forward as a P3 concept. We submitted every project budget that came available from the federal government. Our last several discussions, the Minister has indicated that we just needed to wait and see if there is anything in the budget, so that is where we are at at this point. Thank you.