Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to do a Member's statement on a winter road to Lutselk'e. I had just been thinking about it and thought I would talk to the Minister briefly and advise him that I would like to talk about the benefits of a winter road to Lutselk'e.

I recognize that we are getting late into this season to be able to construct a winter road. I think most of the winter roads are already constructed. A little bit different here, if there was an opportunity to put a winter road in next month, the situation is a bit different than other winter roads in that the majority or all of the entire road into Lutselk'e would be on the ice, on the Great Slave Lake.

I also recognize that there is a shorter time frame because of the size of the lake. We had looked at this previously, Mr. Speaker, and there are pressure ridges that do become created. Once the ice freezes, and because of the size of the lake, there are pressure ridges. At that point, it becomes unsafe to continue. For a period, Mr. Speaker, for a short period, maybe two, three weeks, maybe even as long as a month, there is a possibility to open up a winter road.

I wanted to speak to that, about the benefits to tourism. In fact, I find that, if there was a winter road into Lutselk'e and there were people who wanted to use that winter road, like the local community or even tourism, to drive down that road. The other factor would be that at some point, if this becomes part of the process, part of the winter road construction by the Department of Infrastructure, Thaidene Nene Park, once approved, there would be a good opportunity for a gateway.

There are many economic factors. There is the cost of air freight and also the large infrastructure, like the health centre, trying to get the foundational materials for the health centre in this winter so that there would be less to haul in on the barge going into Lutselk'e. Mr. Speaker, thank you.