Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it’s important to state early on here that it’s not asking for any money to be included in the budget, but it only asks that the department place priority on this almost 30 kilometres of chipseal that’s been deteriorating over the years. I didn’t hear any competence in the Minister’s answer that they do plan to do it next year, and I feel that if we leave it past the 2014 season that we’re going to lose almost half of it because it’s all patches, gravel and chipseal. It’s got little painted lines; it’s actually quite tricky to navigate as it is today. To see us lose it all by another year of letting it sit would be a shame. I feel that it would be good expenditures of dollars, because it’s just rehabilitating what’s there in patches and to save the infrastructure that we have there.
For a section of highway that’s listed on the National Transportation Strategy, Highway No. 1, it’s kind of a shame to see it patched up here and there, particularly this fall. On the gravel sections that got exposed, there are holes and it’s almost unsafe. It’s when the weather affects it that badly.
So I’m just asking my colleagues to support me in directing the Department of Transportation to make this section part of their priority as we move forward for rehabilitation of chipsealing next fiscal year, Mr. Chair. Thank you.