Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the minister and her staff for meeting with us again today.
I want to thank you for the attention you have been paying to the Northwest Territories. We have had a lot of good discussions, and I'm anticipating we're going to make some good headway on a number of fronts.
One of our biggest challenges in the Northwest Territories is the high cost of living. Getting food and fuel into the communities is something that's becoming increasingly challenging as the effects of climate change are starting to really become issues within our communities.
The solution, of course, is to build roads to our communities, or adequate airports with runways that are long enough to support planes coming in with full loads. Right now we have support coming into a lot of our communities that are only accessible by airplanes coming in with half loads, half the number of passengers, so it's increasing our costs.
I know there has been a lot of work done by the minister and her department. There has been a commitment of $27.9 million to expand the program. It's all good news, and there's lots of consultation that's been going on in the north. Is there discussion going on with other departments to talk about roads, proper runway lengths, and things of that nature?
Also, could the minister speak a bit about what she's hearing? I've heard from many people that we need to include traditional foods and the ability to hunt, and to cover some of the costs. It's becoming more difficult, because of the price of fuel to go out on the land for the things that we need.