Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will just provide a couple of quick ones. First of all, I see there is no mention about the work being done on Highway No. 4, unless I missed it. I will also say that I don’t notice much being planned. I know this is not a capital budget, but there is no mention of Highway No. 7 at this time either. I think these are two major projects that seem to be put on the backburner. As I realize, this is not a capital budget, but the fact is that these are major initiatives. There is one all left off the table and one is being worked on behind the scenes. You would think that Highway No. 4 would get a little mention in the Minister’s opening comments considering it was being hailed as a triumph of opportunity a few weeks ago.

The other thing is I am surprised how little discussion about the Deh Cho Bridge is on these particular opening comments. I see that they highlighted the decking, the grouting and whatnot. One of the things that needs to be heard in the public is the fact is the milestone of it going to open this fall going to be met. I think that is a critical question that needs to be asked.

The Minister, when he was a Member, that is, asked a lot of good questions about scour rock and a hole in the pier, and I think those questions still

remain outstanding. If the Minister’s replying to my opening comments would update his… Are they fishing off the scour rock in Norman Wells by now? Will they be talked about regularly?

As far as the Inuvik-Tuk highway goes, I am glad it is certainly mentioned here, because I think that preliminary work needs to be done. I stand by that. I will be steadfast on that initiative, that that work needs to be done, but repeatedly, I know I asked and committee had asked for milestones in our own sense the matrix of opportunities where we start seeing milestones passed and certainly voted on. That still remains outstanding, that request that was made in February that the project would have some identified milestones so that we would know what the project looked like in advance of being told, oh, by the way, we have passed too much. We have reached the halfway point. We have to keep going. I think that is only fair to the taxpayer that we know those things. That was at least as I understood it, that was the commitment made by the Minister in the committee. It still remains outstanding. It is a bit of an important point not to miss, because how often we heard about the Deh Cho Bridge, that we have reached a certain point, we couldn’t go back. The fear is this is our second time around on these particular projects, and I would certainly like to see well in advance where these primary points are that, when we are voting on them, we know what we are voting for and we see and realize what risk we have put in front of us and certainly what we will be putting behind us at the particular time.

Mr. Chair, it is all I have to say on this particular topic of transportation at this particular time. I certainly look forward to hearing a future development about that potential partnership up the valley. Still, not a lot of details have come forward. Even for myself, I would like to request something formal, whether it is a briefing note or a package of some sort that addresses the issue that is being worked on up there. I often hear just little pokes, something is being looked at, some discussions happening, but I wouldn’t mind getting a sense of what is happening. If I could be provided some information on that particular subject about this so-called development of a partnership to build the highway, that would be quite helpful. I would be surprised if committee members didn’t want that type of information as well. When I say committee in this context, I refer to all 11 Members on the Members’ side.

At this particular time I have nothing further. I shall and probably will in some cases have comments on specific pages, more maybe on some, less on others. Thank you.