Thank you, Mr. Chair. We put this as a savings moving forward, but we want to look at using some of this money for the savings for ice bridge accelerations, so some of the money would be spent there; and then, the remainder of the money would be looked at spending on O AND M moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is really, actually, not a cost-saving measure. It is just you are shuffling around these funds into other departments. Really, you are not saving any money. You are just moving it to highway operations and winter roads. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are following a process. We are asked to come with some reductions, and this is one of the ones that we thought warranted bringing forward. As I have said in the House many times, we did a cost-benefit analysis on this, and we believe that doing this is outweighing the benefits. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Outweighing the benefits for who? If you ask the people up in the Beaufort Delta, they are the ones benefitting from it. Now, other highway operations or winter roads, who is going to benefitting from of this now? That is the clear fact, and it is a shame that you have to cut one department to add a little more to a couple of different departments. It is pretty clear that that is what is happening. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member is well aware, this issue was put in place to help offset the concerns around Ikhil, Norman Wells, and Inuvik. We believe that moving forward, as the Member has alluded to in his comments in the House there, that we have learned how to operate this thing efficiently. The other thing that we have done at the same time is gather information, and we do not see that it warrants having this in place. We believe that the accelerated ice road could be done with limited disruption, as the ferry was closed 40 per cent of the time, as I have said a number of times due to the weather factors. There are a number of things that have come to make this decision for us to bring this forward, and we believe it is the right one. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I know a lot of the information that the department is using is from a couple of years back. This 40 per cent closure he is referring to, I know in my discussions in the House, that was highway closures is what he is referring to. That might have been a couple of years back, but this year, it was very limited. Like I said, if you take the numbers that were used on the ferry this year, we have had in the neighbourhood of 200 tractor trailers, if not more. In the month of November alone, we had over 120. The reason I know this is because I communicate pretty well with the people who work on this ferry. I was given pretty accurate numbers. It is a shame that we have to cut the service. That is not to mention all the public traffic that was using this. There are a lot of tourists, and a lot of my residents and residents from Inuvik as well who made use of this ferry operation. It is a real shame that we have to cut this department, just to give more to a couple of different departments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have said before, I don't want to get into a big debate with Members on some of these initiatives that we have had on the floor already. This is something that was put in place to help mitigate the offset of the keel well. We believe that there are measures put in place to remedy that, to make sure the residence of Inuvik have an ample supply of liquefied natural gas and propane. We do not believe that pulling this winter ferry service, along with accelerating the ice bridge, will affect any of those things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Blake?

Yes. You know, I hope I don't have to say, "I told you so," in the next year or two, but let's just hope that Inuvik is not put in danger with this decision that was made by the department. You never know how long freeze-ups can last, especially with climate change right now. The average is two months from the time they pull out the ferry until the heavy traffic can move through the ice road, so that is a lot of time. That is over 60 days that something tragic could happen with the situation that they have in Inuvik with the natural gas and LNG. We will just have to see what happens here. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Anything further from the Minister?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to clarify that it is actually 36 days that cost us $1.8 million. I stand behind, as I have said on a number of initiatives, that we warrant that this initiative being put forward as a cost-saving measure is justifiable, and we will stand behind it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Schumann. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the Minister is referring to light traffic. Light traffic can transfer LNG, just for his information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Anything further, Minister? Nothing further from the Minister. Next on my list I have Mr. Nakimayak.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am just looking at bullet number three, highway operations. I see there is an increase. Can the Minister elaborate on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Mr. Neudorf.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Nakimayak.