Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, my line of questions again are around the Sahtu and the exploration activities that are happening this year and…(inaudible)…well, for a long time. I want to ask the Minister on the transportation support that the community is going to be needing in the future, and again ask for, I guess, a comprehensive analysis of all the transportation to support the infrastructure, again, happening in the Sahtu. I want to ask about the marine and if there’s any thought of his department considering moving a marine ferry up into that area to support the activity in Norman Wells or Tulita.
Again, I had my meeting last week, a couple weeks ago with the leadership from Deline, and they talked about the climate change and the freezing of
the Great Bear Lake and how thin that ice is being frozen every year. They asked the question of would the department consider putting a ferry at Great Bear Lake. These are some of the things that are happening in my region.
There are two points that I want to ask the Minister. First is if he foresees a possibility of once the Deh Cho Bridge is open and used, you know, they’ve got an extra ferry in the yard here. Is that something that the department would consider to support the oil and gas activity in and around the Sahtu, for having a ferry up in our area? Would he consider looking at Deline’s request for a ferry at Great Bear Lake? I mean, that’s a pretty far out idea; however, we’re actually at the point where they need to look at things like this in the future because of the climate change.