Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We want that section of the highway to be a glorious piece of highway to drive. We have been working hard to accomplish that, given the age of the highway and the amount of work that’s going to be required to reconstruct that whole section of highway on both Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 7. I think we’ve been working quite well with the Member in his riding.

Highway No. 7 has seen the investment, or will see it by the end of this summer, of about $12 million that has been dedicated to that section of road. However, that’s far short of what it needs to be reconstructed...

We have people that provide oversight on all our roads on a regular basis. In the case of the Dempster, I think we’ve invested well over $28 million in the life of this government and the previous government. There are a lot of discussions between ourselves, transportation officials of the NWT, and with the Yukon. If there are any concerns, certainly, we’d like to hear further of the specifics. If there is something that needs to be reviewed, we certainly can have our headquarters staff or somebody from the regional office and provide some investigation to look at the situation. But it is...

Overall, we think it’s an excellent opportunity to the qualified businesses in the Northwest Territories to expand their service, to generate a revenue source. It may mean a different type of vehicle. It may mean a different schedule. It may mean convincing Greyhound to release some of their commitments to provide freight. All those discussions have to take place, and we certainly have to get a better understanding as to what is going to be coming in terms of what the Greyhound plans are. We don’t have that all in our hands right now.

The reason the bus service is not going to haul passengers anymore is because the Alberta government deregulated their system. It is now allowing what was a monopoly up until now, to cancel some of the trips that are coming to the rural areas that have very low market volumes.

We have certainly an interest to communicate what the plans are from Greyhound. Our information coming from the local operators is they don’t have a very good understanding as to what the Greyhound plans to do, whether they would step aside if an operator came forward from the Northwest Territories and operated up to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take the occasion to recognize a former colleague from my time in RWED in my past life, Mr. Robert Bouchard. I understand Robert has developed a keen interest in politics and I want to wish him all the best. Of course, I want to recognize Melody McLeod, my sister-in-law, and say welcome.

We are also trying to deal with the issues that are occurring on the Wrigley highway. We are, of course, being challenged this year with additional traffic due to the oil spill that happened along the pipeline route. We are discussing with the pipeline company to work with us, to partner up with us to address some of the issues that the road is receiving in terms of traffic volumes and heavy trucks on it. They have agreed, and I think we have an agreement. If we have not signed one, we will be signing one where we will try to jointly address some of the issues that are challenging that stretch...

We are working on the very request that the Member has raised. We are conducting a full engineering assessment. We’re preparing a functional design on Highway No. 7. This will help us to develop the rehabilitation plan that’s needed. This will also determine the next steps for meeting the current and future traffic needs of that area.

I believe we’re all on the same page on this issue. There is still a lot of work, as I’ve stated before, that needs to be done before we have a final, complete design and plan with all the investment requirements in place.

Yes, we could do that. That’s something that the Member has some desire to get some results from any potential differences. We’ll review it, and sit down with him and provide that information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Karl is survived by his wife, Anne, who continues to live in Enterprise. He was cremated and will be buried in Winnipeg, Manitoba, near some of his relatives. A memorial service will be held on May 28th at 2:00 p.m. in the community hall of Enterprise and we welcome any visitors. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to advise the Members of the House of the passing of Mr. Karl Mueller of Enterprise. Karl...everyone knew him. He suffered a heart attack and passed away on May the 12th of this year at the extended care unit of H.H. Williams Hospital in Hay River.

Karl was born on April 19, 1929, in Vienna, Austria. He immigrated to Canada in 1957, with Toronto being his first Canadian home. He then moved to the North, living and mining in the Yukon for several years before moving to Fort Smith, where he lived for approximately 20 years and worked in the field of...