Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT, in its discussions with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation members, will discuss the public release of the concession agreement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize an elder from the Sahtu: Andrew John Kenny.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize my loving wife and my little boy, Chase. Also, Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a huge delegation from the Sahtu region: elder Morris Mendo, Grand Chief Frank Andrew, elder David Etchinelle, Ricky Andrew, chief from Deline, Raymond Tutcho, Mrs. Ayha, Mrs. Mackenzo, Mrs. Taniton, Mrs. Kenny and I would like to recognize other people also who are in this House today.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to, first of all, thank my family back in Tulita and the people and my family members in the Sahtu region for supporting me. Mr. Speaker, without them, we say our family is so important to our life, more so in the job that we do today as MLAs, as Ministers, as Members of the Legislative Assembly. My family members are there at the end of the day.

I want to also thank my friends and thank my ready campaign team, which we had a break from the campaign thanks to the gift of the Sahtu people for acclaiming me as their representative in this Assembly....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, honourable colleagues. I wanted to say to Minister Roland, Minister McLeod and Minister Krutko, and the other Ministers, you have made a difference in my people. I know there’s some tough decisions and there’s policies, but there’s also heart. I wanted to thank you for looking in there and making those tough decisions sometimes. Our people really appreciate that.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to say to Mr. Handley, I really appreciated his statement yesterday saying I think we have to stop acting like little grandchildren of the Department of...

You speak for us in terms of national, territorial issues that benefit all of the people in the Northwest Territories. I want to say that when this quote came up that it made so much sense.

As Ministers, I want to thank you on behalf of the people in the Sahtu for coming into my region for making some difference, making some impacts and having some sense of where the people in the Sahtu are coming from when we come together in meetings, when you come to visit us at our homes. I know some Ministers came to some old people’s homes and sat beside some old grannies or grandpas and sat and had tea...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, being the last day of our sitting of this Assembly, we’ve still got another week of work yet before the writ is dropped and the Ministers still have their caps on as Ministers until we get a new Cabinet sworn in in October. Mr. Speaker, I was thinking about things to say to the Ministers last night and I was tossing and turning. Gee, I had a hard time to sleep, tossing and turning about what to say to the Ministers.

---Laughter

So I go up and I read a book and, Mr. Speaker, in the book that I read there was a quote there by the author and the author said...

I don’t know; I need to read the Hansard again. Mr. Speaker, the issue here is very dear to my people in the Sahtu region about longer runways. They have told the Minister, they have told this government, they have told me that the issue of the longer runways is critical, critical to their services, critical to the safety of our people, critical to developing our region. We can’t get a road right away into our region; it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any bridges yet; at least look at helping us with the extension of our runways. By golly, can this Minister do something like that?...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister was up in Colville Lake and landed on their runway. I think that, compared to Yellowknife, the Colville Lake runway is like a parking lot and we want to extend. There’s lots of activity going on in the Sahtu region. I just got word this afternoon that some more oil and gas activity is going to be happening this year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Transportation in terms of the issue on feasibility study on the extension of the runways in the small communities. Thank you.