Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we spent a number of hours with both the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning and EDI committee late last week and provided a presentation to committee on the requirement of the $2.5 million that you see in the supp before us today. As I mentioned to Regular Members and the committees, the money that we’re requesting is to do the due diligence. I know there have been some estimates on what the highway will cost, but if we don’t go out and do the geotechnical work and the baseline, find out that baseline information, we’re not going to get an adequate picture of what we’re potentially getting ourselves into and we need to do that work.

We’re not going blindly, as some Members have suggested, into this project. In fact, we are coming back looking for this money so that we can do that analysis, we can get the work done and we can put our best foot forward, get the environmental assessment done so that the project is at a point where as a government we can work with the feds and pursue this project. It’s a great project; it’s a project that’s going to connect the highway system in this country from coast to coast to coast. It’s something that is a priority of this government. We intend on pursuing it and it may concern some Members that we’re moving aggressively, but this is a moving project.

We have got to hit some timelines, we have got to do the work and nothing happens if you don’t go after it and get after it. I think that’s something I’d like to see happen, is us get out and get after this project. We’ve spent some time, I know Cabinet was up in the Beaufort-Delta and spent some time with the leadership up there. People are excited about this project in the Beaufort-Delta. It’s exciting from a number of perspectives. It’s going to reduce the cost of living in a community like Tuktoyaktuk.

It’s going to potentially lead to further exploration both onshore and offshore for both oil and gas. It’s a project that we need to continue to support and move forward.

I guess I was a little bit concerned – and I can understand and appreciate some of the concern that Members had – people are saying we’re rushing into this, we don’t know what the cost is. But if we don’t get out and do this work, we won’t know answers to those questions. So that’s what this is all about. This is a project that has national significance and it’s an opportunity for our government to show its maturation and step up to the plate. We have a ready and willing partner in the federal government.

Some Members say that there’s a cap of $150 million. We don’t know that. We have yet to hammer out the financial arrangements, as they’ll unfold at a later date. We still have to negotiate that with the federal government, but first and foremost we have to get the project to a point where we can have those type of negotiations with the federal government and we’re going to pursue that.

This is $2.5 million on potentially an estimated $250 million project. So its work we need to do, it`s work that would be required and I hope Members see this project for what it is. It’s a nation-building project, it’s a territory-building project and it is an opportunity for this territory to show its maturity and partner with the federal government to deliver a project like this. Thank you.