Mr. Speaker, we will have a project soon. Hopefully sometime this week we’ll get answers back from the federal government. Our objective is to have that risk assessment, the risk matrix out for public consumption hopefully by the end of this week.

For the Member to stand up in the House and say that it’s only going to be Cabinet’s decision on this project and that we are brokering a deal, he’s making it seem like we’re doing this behind closed doors. That decision will be made on the floor of this House by Members of this Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Member for raising the concern. As far as airports go, we feel that the parking at YZF here in Yellowknife, there’s one hour free parking for anybody that wants to park in the lot. We have to remember there are drop-off areas there so people can drop folks off. There are carts for luggage. From a safety perspective, we have to keep traffic moving in that area, so we can’t have congestion in that area. The parking enforcement at the airport is that it’s meant to be a deterrent to people leaving their vehicles outside of the airport. Not everybody takes...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The main impetus on looking at relocating the Merv Hardie to Tsiigehtchic was its ice-breaking capability and the fact that it could remain in operation longer, and with the situation of gas in Inuvik, that’s very, very important. Again, decisions are going to have to be made sooner rather than later. The Merv Hardie, we didn’t look at any other location that it could move in the NWT. The traffic volumes aren’t there at other locations and, again, I think we need to keep in mind the situation in Inuvik with the gas and the fact that we can keep that crossing open for...

The agreements would stay in place with the new owners. We’re very encouraged with what Harry Winston has been discussing with us in terms of northern workforce development and also the provision of perhaps having a rough supply here in Yellowknife for local cut and polish companies to avail themselves of. It’s all very encouraging and I think we have a lot to look forward to with Harry Winston, Dominion Diamond, being involved in the diamond industry here in the Northwest Territories. That agreement the Member spoke of will go with the sale.

Thank you. Yes, there definitely are benefits to building the Inuvik-Tuk highway. As far as a business case goes, all roads built here in the Northwest Territories, I mean, we wouldn’t have the Deh Cho Bridge if we went strictly of a cost-benefit analysis. So we have to build infrastructure and in this case it’s the Inuvik-Tuk highway that we’re looking at constructing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my right is deputy minister of Transportation, Mr. Russell Neudorf and to my left is the assistant deputy minister of DOT, Mr. Daniel Auger.

I am pleased to be here today to present the Department of Transportation’s proposed main estimates for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The department is requesting a total budget of $117 million, including amortization. This represents a net decrease of $3.4 million, or 2.8 percent, from the previous budget.

The net decrease in the Department of Transportation’s budget for 2013-2014 includes an increase to amortization expenses of $3.7 million, an increase for forced growth of $2.4 million, and a number of other adjustments with a net decrease of $7.2 million mainly associated with the Deh Cho...

Mr. Speaker, the benefits are that we’re not waiting, there is access to the North Slave region 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There is convenience. It’s good for transportation companies. It will be great for university students coming back from university in May. They won’t have to face leaving their vehicles in Hay River and fly to Yellowknife and then fly back to Hay River to pick up their vehicles.

It went into the contract. There were extra costs associated with accelerating the contract in order to get the bridge open by November 30th, and if the Member wants to find exactly where...

Mr. Speaker, that horse left the barn about six years ago. There have been a number of questions that have been asked over the years. I don’t believe it does us much good to be beating a dead horse. The bridge is open. If the Member wants specifics on what exactly that $10 million was used for, that money was used to get the contract complete by November 30th so that the bridge could be put into service and that’s exactly what we did. The government was intent on getting that bridge put into service on November 30th. There was a cost to do that. That is what we did, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.