Mr. Speaker, we will continue to make every effort to bring the message forward to the federal government that there is a real need for a Mackenzie Valley Highway. We will continue to take the opportunities, whether it is myself as the Transportation Minister or the Premier or the Finance Minister or any other Minister that sits for this government to make the arguments. Mr. Speaker, it may warrant further trips to Ottawa. It may warrant involving other people. We will have to look at that. There are other considerations, of course, in terms of elections and things of that nature, but we are...

Mr. Speaker, I have to apologize to the Member. I don’t have that information in front of me. I do recall that the report that was conducted and the research that was done in the communities came back indicating there would be huge benefit to the communities along the right-of-way. There would be huge benefit in terms of jobs in the area of road construction. There would be a lot of savings to the communities in the cost of living as they’d be able to travel on a year-round road. It would certainly increase tourism. That part of the country is very beautiful, as the Member knows. There are...

Mr. Speaker, I can commit to give it to him again. Mr. Speaker, this is information he has already received. We already approved our capital plan in October. As to what’s coming up in the next plan, that’s still being drafted and I’m not in a position to commit to something that I can’t guarantee.

Mr. Speaker, in 1992 the Status of Women Council began presenting the annual Wise Women Awards. This award honours the outstanding women throughout the five regions of the Northwest Territories. Recipients of this prestigious award are described by the Status of Women Council as community role models who demonstrate wisdom, perseverance and deification while standing up for women, children and families in the communities. They strive to make the North a better place to live, to work and to raise families.

Mr. Speaker, this year I’m very pleased to announce that Ms. Sylvia Nadli has been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not very often I get visitors in the gallery so I’d like to welcome Ms. Sylvia Nadli, the award winner for the Wise Women Award for this year. It’s her first time at the Legislative Assembly so I’d like to say welcome and to have safe travels home. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to update Members and the public on the Community Access Program administered by the Department of Transportation.

Communities and residents are benefiting greatly from this program, especially in our small rural and remote communities.

The Community Access Program provides funding contributions to communities for local access roads, trails and winter roads to nearby attractions such as hunting, fishing and wood gathering areas and recreational sites. The 16th Legislative Assembly significantly expanded this program through the Refocusing Government...

Some of this information is available publicly. Our financial audit is done on an annual basis. It’s reviewed by the Auditor General. The information is something we can certainly share. Mr. Speaker, we’ve asked for some committee time to talk about some of the details regarding schedules, regarding budgets and things of that nature. I believe we’ve managed to secure some time so we can have an opportunity to sit down and look at some of these things in depth, including the risk matrix and things of that nature that maybe will provide some comfort to the Members with further detail. Thank...

Mr. Speaker, we do have status reports that are compiled on a daily basis by the different companies that we have. We also do our own. We do it on a weekly and monthly basis. We certainly can provide a reconciliation of where the expenditures are versus the construction schedule. Mr. Speaker, we are a little over 80 percent, moving towards 85 percent of our expenditures, of our budget being spent, and we’re probably at the same level with our construction schedule. So roughly a little more than 80 percent of our budget is spent and a little more than 80 percent of our contract schedule is...

Yes, but, Mr. Speaker... Mr. Speaker, that’s correct, but if there are any issues that arise that are attributed to something we’ve done or that are under our responsibility, then we would have to absorb those costs. Thank you.

Thank you. It’s a difficult situation we’re in. We have our contractors that are listening to this discussion, we’ve already been contacted by the contractors raising concerns over some of the Member’s comments that are in the contract. There’s a proprietary issue that we’re dealing with here. These issues are dealt with in the contract. I’m not in a position to disclose it at this time, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have to reassure the Member that these issues were things that were taken into consideration. Thank you.