Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I have a few comments here before we get to your motion. I wanted to raise the point with the Minister of Transportation. He alluded to the amount of oil and gas exploration that’s going to happen in the Sahtu, because of the land sales and the exploration that’s going to be happening up there for the next five to six years or longer depending on some decisions that will be made in this government or within the Sahtu region on oil and gas. It makes more sense to have a push for a permanent, established regional office of Transportation in the Sahtu. Speaking to the ITI people, we are going to see up to $70 million spent in the Sahtu this winter for one oil company to drill two wells and explore gas and do seismic. We are still talking about other companies coming up there.

This is supposed to be happening in the next five years or longer, with over half a billion dollars; close to $600 million is going to be spent in the Sahtu because of oil and gas. So I strongly urge the Minister if he would look within his department, talk to his colleagues and see if it makes sense to start establishing a permanent regional office in the Sahtu for Transportation.

I do appreciate the contractors on the winter road. They do a damn good job building the road and maintaining it with the support of the companies to make it a lot smoother. You will notice in our region where there is no oil and gas activity the roads are not quite as good as the ones the companies are using. People rely on those roads, they now are taking it for granted that it’s part of the government’s greater responsibility for safety and making a good road.

So I ask the Minister again, I urge strongly that this Cabinet look at steps to move it to another level while we have the economy in the Sahtu. I’m making a plea here to the department on this issue.

The Deline ice crossing at Bear Lake is an O and M issue. I know the infrastructure is coming later on,

but again I’m making the plea that the Minister will look at this so people in Deline can have the opportunity to participate in the oil and gas development in the Sahtu area. Specifically the Tulita area because of the wait and the weather, we just aren’t able to do that to get heavy equipment over to areas possibly where they could be put to work. It’s a short time frame; three months. I’ve seen your work this winter, I’ve driven on the winter roads from Wrigley to the Wells and Tulita, I’ve driven on the Bear Lake road towards Deline and we’ve got to commend those contractors for doing good jobs on the road. So I want to say that.

The other issue I wanted to ask the Minister through the O and M budget here for 2012-13 is if he would look at the area up in the Mackenzie Mountains on the Canol Road between the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The site is called Mile 222. That’s a site that has been used a lot by the Department of ENR for reporting of hunters and outfitters, but we also have Selwyn Resources now in that area and they have proposed to use that land for extracting large amounts of lead and zinc, but they also need to take that material out. They’re looking at a road in that area. So I want to ask the Minister if you ask this department if they have any type of old equipment that’s surplused, if they could somehow get that equipment to Mile 222 to maintain that road. It doesn’t take very much. I’ve talked to some of the people in Norman Wells. They say if we had equipment at 222 we could maintain that little stretch of road, which is still under the Northwest Territories highway system. It would help with the outfitters coming in. It won’t take much and it’s a good opportunity for tourism.

Maybe the Minister can talk to the ITI Minister and see if they can work together on this issue. More importantly, we have a huge opportunity with Selwyn Resources. They’re in the stages they want to come into production. When I read their report, they want to put a road on the Northwest Territories side to bring out the lead and zinc. That’s a lot of trucks a day they’re going to use to haul down to Watson Lake and then further south. It’s billions, Madam Chair. So I want to ask the Minister through his planning with his colleagues and the department here is looking at seeing if we could take some of this old equipment that’s in surplus and use it at Mile 222.

I want to bring those two points up to the Minister. We have a lot of activity right now in the Sahtu. The Minister is going to come and tour with me sometime. I’ve asked some other Ministers. One already came and the other one is planning to come shortly and look at it. Hopefully, we will see some of the activity. It’s booming, and people are happy and they’re working. People are doing their best to keep the roads in a safe manner. I’ve seen some work there, so I ask the Minister if he could

look at that more closely and put some emphasis to the operations and maintenance of transportation.

I’d like to hear from the Minister on my previous comment on the interest payments on the Deh Cho Bridge. That’s it.