Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to express my well wishes to four couples in my riding who were married recently and to a dear friend who will marry this weekend. In Fort Liard, Mr. Speaker, I have Mr. Marc Schmitz married to Ms. Alana Harris, Mr. Jonathon Buckley who married Ms. Stacey McLeod; and in Fort Simpson, Mr. Michael Canney married to Ms. Lyn Wharton, as well as last weekend Mr. Colin Munroe to Miss Leah Keats. This coming weekend, a close friend of mine, Miss Lisa Lafferty to be married to a Michael Tetso. I wish to congratulate these families, every happiness and wish them...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I’ll be pleased to add that to the agenda at our upcoming meeting. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now, we are continuing our assessment on the Kakisa Bridge. Restrictions will be in place until an engineering assessment says anything different. For now, Mr. Speaker, the bridge is old. We do have serious concerns over the stress and fatigue that is with the steel there and the restriction may even be in place up until next year when we start constructing a new bridge on the Kakisa River. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The safety concerns around the Kakisa Bridge have been on the books for our department for some time. In fact, we are up to looking at replacing the bridge. We have been monitoring the bridge for the last year. Some of the international driving courses is the bridge collapse in Mississippi as well as the incident in Quebec last year that really heightened our Bridge Inspection Program, Mr. Speaker. That is what we are concentrating on. With that collapse in Mississippi, it made us take a second look at the Kakisa Bridge, because it is our oldest bridge, Mr...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Our priority right now is to do the 44 kilometres from the border towards Midway Lake and that’s where we’re expending our efforts. We’ve got regular O and M funding that does, as well, address some of the issues of that particular section the Member is talking about, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I was very happy to take the opportunity to go to Inuvik and to the northern reaches of our great territory and drive on the infrastructure that we do have over there. My opinion, it would be moot at this point but I can give the Member some facts, and the fact is that we have spent $35 million on the Dempster Highway over the years, and the last two years, Mr. Speaker, we have spent $5 million upgrading that piece of infrastructure and we've been very happy with the contractors that work there and work hard on our highways. We are working towards safe...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I actually heard a couple questions there and I'll follow up with the first one, which was the commitment to follow up on the study that's been previously committed. I can certainly do that. I'll check with the department and see where that assessment is at. As well, in answering the second part of his question is, I'll continue to do the same with the department and find out where the assessment and evaluation of extending the boundary from Behchoko to Boundary Creek. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The department, along with many other departments in our government, have been using and will continue to ask for local workforce in all its communities and regions that we represent. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is anticipated that the bridge will be constructed and in place for next fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some of the issues that we are having with the Kakisa Bridge right now is that it is a 50-year-old bridge. It is steel and concrete that was used on that bridge. It is exactly at that same age. We are having some stress and some fatigue issues with the steel and we are looking at it. The engineers are assessing it to see what kind of mitigation we can deal with the bridge and make it safer for our travelling public. Once again, as repairs are ongoing, we have asked that the road restriction be five kilometres an hour through the work zone. Thank you.