Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to the budget for Transportation, a few things that I’m concerned that aren’t in the budget. One of the big issues for the people of Aklavik is the access road to Willow River. I was hoping to see that in this

budget but, hopefully, within the fall, during business plans next time, we could try to find some sort of funds to allocate to the community to proceed with that project.

Also, one thing that’s not in the budget this year is the funds to allocate to maintain the receiver on the Rat Pass. That’s only $10,000 that we’re talking about. Many people in the Mackenzie Delta rely on the Rat Pass channel for communications. It’s a major safety issue. And not only in the Mackenzie Delta, but we have people in the Inuvik riding, as well, that make use of that channel.

Also, under the marine operations, in the past it’s been always a practice to hire locally when working near a community. I’ll just use Tsiigehtchic as an example. At the moment, whenever we are either taking the ferry out of the water or launching the ferry, we bring people in from other communities. The community is dead set against that. They want to see their people working during those many jobs in the smaller communities that are seasonal. They would like to see their people work in there.

At the moment, the department is doing a very good job on the Dempster Highway, I must say, compared to the highway on the Yukon side. Our highway, I believe, is much better quality. It is a lot safer for our residents. They are doing a good job in that field. Thank you very much.