Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my colleague’s from Hay River North statement on the necessity of this government to invest money in upkeep on our roads and our winter roads, I would just like to say that Hay River is a place where at this time of year we see a lot of visitors from the North that do come in on the winter road. It’s a very narrow window, and it is dictated a lot of times by the weather on a year-to-year basis. But it’s very nice when we see people pull into town from Fort Good Hope and Tulita and Colville Lake and the people taking advantage of that winter road.
The Hay River businesses very much appreciate them not continuing south, or turning north at the junction and coming here to Yellowknife. They come to Hay River to pick up vehicles, have vehicles serviced, pick up parts for their snow machines, to get resupplied for their groceries and their goods that they need for the year, and that is a very, very important piece of infrastructure for people who for the rest of the year do not have any means of driving out of their communities, and it is a narrow window.
As Mr. Bouchard said, if we have a bad fire season, we find the money. But if we have a bad winter road season, we sometimes go, oh well, let’s just close it down. I think that we need to really think about that.
This weekend we’ll see lots of folks coming in on all-weather roads and winter roads to the Kamba Carnival. It’s a great opportunity for families and friends to get together. March is carnival season and so we, again, will welcome many visitors to our community. Again, I just want to say how much we appreciate their support for Hay River, for Hay River businesses and for coming to our community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.