Thank you very much,

Madam Chair. Like I said, for nine years I’ve been here and I still find it incomprehensible and with disbelief that they did not allocate any capital dollars to Highway No. 7, because I’ve stated time and time again, almost every session, about the condition of Highway No. 7 and every spring it collapses. Previous Ministers have always said yes, we’ll spend the money early in the season, but I hear that again. So it’s not good enough for me. I want a written commitment, perhaps from the Minister of Transportation, that yes, they will spend a little carry-over money and capital money that they have early in the season and spend it, because for the past eight seasons construction always happens in August and September and that’s when the rainy season is. It impacts the construction and leads to poorer construction. I don’t know why that is. Why do we continue to put the Nahendeh highway systems on the backburner?

We approved the capital budget in November for the last few years actually, but still last August they were tendering out a contract to chipseal Highway No. 7, which I was very happy to hear about, but they were tendering it out in July. What’s going on? Why are they tendering it out in July? We gave them approval in November.

So that’s the kind of frustrations that I’d like to bring to the table today, Madam Chair. When it comes to this O and M budget, whatever money is there I want to ask and get a commitment from the Minister of Transportation that, yes, they will start construction early in the new year. I don’t want to hear soft commitments. I’ve been hearing that for eight years and that’s not good enough for me

anymore. We’ve got to take care of the needs of Highway No. 7.

I know that our government is spending lots of time putting the Inuvik-Tuk highway on the Prime Minister’s lips. He’s got to hear Highway No. 7 as well. That’s equally important to our North. It’s beneficial to our North. We’ve got a couple of major infrastructure private sector projects in the region that will depend on Highway No. 7. The Enbridge oil spill depends on Highway No. 7. They’re moving all their product down there. It will be in even poorer shape when springtime rolls around there.

I’d like our government and the Department of Transportation to start paying attention to Highway No. 7 in my riding, and that begins by the commitment and the action of working on that highway early in the season and early enough. Like I said, your commitment to monitor and respond to road conditions as they need is just not good enough. We need firm commitments. We need action, not words. Thank you.