I appreciate the Minister’s response and perspectives. I don’t entirely, of course, agree. I think the point is that the number of projects that are being deferred is increasing and the overall state of our highway system is not being maintained as it should be. We are having to make these choices more and more, whereas we used to be able to do both. That’s what’s changed. I think we do need to do a reassessment, but I know committee is grappling with that, as well, so that discussion will be ongoing.
Highway No. 3 has been brought up a number of times already. Here’s another highway that is proving to be very challenging; so far the most challenging, I believe, in the Northwest Territories, again related to our changing climate and the loss of permafrost. We have a few test strips being done but none of those are, obviously, cheap. If one of them does work, you know, to apply it extensively will be very expensive, but it still might be a better option than the bottomless pit of just repairing, repairing, repairing. This is in a zone of discontinuous permafrost. The Minister knows that in the zone of continuous permafrost the warming is an even greater rate than we’re experiencing here in the southern part of the Northwest Territories. But that’s another subject.
I wonder, has the Minister done any work to look at what the costs will be if one of these options proves to be technically feasible to apply them in an extensive way to Highway No. 3.