Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As my colleagues know, two of my favourite words in this Legislature are Highway 7. I cannot let the 17th Assembly draw to a close without saying them for the 150th time. This time it’s a pleasure to say positive things about the work being done on the reconstruction of this highway, which is an important lifeline for the people of the communities I represent.
As I mentioned in March 2014, the renewed funding from the federal government under the new Build Canada Plan and the Department of Transportation’s Corridors for Canada III has allowed critical reconstruction work to continue. It was a beautiful summer in Nahendeh and nice, dry weather led to work great work on the highway. People were happy with the rehabilitation work done on Fort Liard Highway No. 7, which included grade repairs, surfacing, safety improvements, 20 of the 30 kilometres were chipsealed from the BC border to Fort Liard, and the dip at kilometre 169 was fixed and for the first time in years, the road ban was lifted in June.
I am pleased to see that reconstruction work is scheduled for the next four years in the Department of Transportation’s capital plan. I wanted to thank the Minister of Transportation and his department for the great work and look forward to reconstructing the rest in the years to come.
Premier McLeod and Minister Ramsay travelled with me on August 27th to Fort Liard. The conditions of the road were very good, but constituents were telling the Premier about it. In fact, he was chiding me and asking me what I was complaining about. All kidding aside, there’s much work yet to be done so that the travelling public and businesses can really enjoy the Deh Cho Trail, the road connection from the Alberta border all the way through to the BC border and then on to the Alaska Highway. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
