Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With regard to the issue that the Member started his statement on regarding fiscal management and responsibility, we have, over the last eight years, managed our way through some extremely traumatic financial times, including the major downturn in 2007. As we have pointed out, we have still not rebounded from that, but we manage to navigate our way through those difficult times without any program cuts or layoffs and we continue to invest in capital.
We give, in every case possible, as much advance notice as we can. For example, when the fire season was going, we sent out correspondence indicating we are going to need special warrants. I do appreciate that we didn’t have the exact number of $40 million for the Tuk-Inuvik highway or Inuvik-Tuk highway. While we had flagged it, we did not have the number that would make it a very specific and focused discussion. As soon as we got that number, we came before this House. That is a project of territorial significance. We do recognize and we have a plan that’s going to carry through the life of this capital plan that’s before House and then next year, the year after that, sorry, at this point the intent is, and the plan is, for the capital plan to go back down to $75 million a year, which everyone will discover, once again, how little money that is for the $3 billion infrastructure deficit that we do have.
The Building Canada Plan Fund, we’re just waiting for some final numbers. We have briefed committee and I would indicate to the Member that in regard to the road, the terminal building and the Dempster, those are all projects that have been identified as we’ve laid out to committee. We’re just waiting for the numbers and how the money will be spread around, but very clearly in the Inuvik region in the Member’s constituency those are some of the
priority projects that are there to be addressed. I do thank the Member for his comments.