David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, I believe there’s a need in our communities also for firebreaks, and I think that’s probably a perfect opportunity for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, working with the Department of the Environment, to use those dollars that are going to be expended to develop firebreaks around communities as, basically, fire protection. So I’d like to ask the Minister, will he consider talking with his colleague from the Department of Environment if there’s such an opportunity for communities to use those dollars to not only develop firebreaks but also use them to develop multi...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister, I know there was a previous program called the Community Trails Program, and I think it was a joint program between the Government of the Northwest Territories and the federal government. So I’d like to ask the Minister, does that program exist and if it does, how much resources are in that program.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Arctic Winter Games were held in Grande Prairie, Alberta, March 6th to the 14th, in which many athletes took part. I would like to mention the athletes in the Mackenzie Delta riding who came home with a record number of ulus.

The representation of the games from my region was 39 individuals who represent the region. Mr. Speaker, they took part in dog mushing, snowshoeing, snowshoe biathlon, Dene games, female hockey, cultural events, volleyball, indoor soccer and cross-country skiing. I would like to congratulate each and every one of these athletes and...

Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report progress and that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be supporting this motion, because I believe that the situation we find ourselves today, this is one of the largest P3 projects that we’ve taken on. We’ve established legislation that was supposed to protect us, that being the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation Act. We had a concession agreement we were hoping spelled out the terms and conditions and now we find ourselves in the situation we’re in today where we have to take on $165 million into our books and deal with the effect that is going to have going forward.

Not having a P3 policy in place that clearly identifies...

Mr. Speaker, again, I believe that in order to accomplish this, we are going to have to do it as a pilot project. Like you say, it is one of those projects that we have to test out and see exactly how it will be applied and, more importantly, how it will hold up on the Dempster Highway and other roads in the region. I think it is something that we have to look at in light of climate change and other effects we are seeing. I think that this is something that we as government have to seriously consider. I would just like to ask the Minister again, is it possible to come forward with some sort of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation in regards to the area of chipseal or basically some sort of program that can be used to upgrade or resurface the Dempster Highway. At some point we are going to have to resurface that highway. We are already looking at the widening, which hopefully in the next couple of years will be concluded, but we will have to find a product to surface the Dempster in the future.

I would like to ask the Minister in regards to the possibility of a pilot project. I know I have asked this to three previous Ministers of Transportation...

Mr. Speaker, I believe that these types of programs do develop community capacity, but more importantly, it allows our athletes to be able to train similar to other athletes in the larger centres but train on facilities that are designed for their activity, regardless if it’s cross-country skiing or snowshoeing or even the ability to be able to use that facility for community usage. So I’d just like to ask the Minister, can his department consider looking at some sort of an initiative that allows communities to work on a program that develops Community Trails so that it can be used for...

[Microphone turned off.] …show that we can compete regardless of where we come from, but again... [English not provided.]

…or even allowing for those out there to achieve high results and be able to perform even at the national level, from what we’ve seen at the Arctic Winter Games, because of something I think that we can build on. We have shown that these people can compete, so I’d like to ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, are there any programs out there to develop capacity in the communities so that these athletes can continue their participation in the sport that they...

Minister of Transportation.