David Krutko

The Minister of Transportation.

Mr. Speaker, I think we should watch what we ask for here, because I think if you’re going to open up one box, you’re going to be opening up a whole bunch of boxes from hydro development to diamond industry to oil and gas to you name it. You start opening up these boxes, you better be willing to look at everything that’s under the sun. I’d like to ask the Minister, if you’re going to consider this policy, you better make it a policy that basically affects the whole Northwest Territories in all sectors by way of the hydro sector, the oil and gas sector, the minerals sector, the diamonds sector...

The Minister mentioned that there’s a possibility of getting federal dollars for marine operations. Is there any idea of how much money we’re talking about from the federal government?

Minister of Transportation.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7.

---Unanimous consent granted

I think the perfect solution would be a bridge.

Again, going back to the original questions, I think that, as part of our Highway Strategy, we do have to have some sort of a policy in place to allow to look at things such as P3s in regards to sort of the Deh Cho Bridge or even the Mackenzie Highway. That has to be an option or an alternative. I know we don’t have the capital dollars to do all of these things. I think that we have to find a way to finance it, knowing that we don’t have tens of millions of dollars. We need to do all these things, but I think we do have to look at alternative ways of financing projects.

I was in Manitoba with...

Mr. Chair, knowing that we had seven years and I think that four years is probably more reasonable than the two years the federal government are asking for. For me, that’s the issue, is that we have to ensure that those communities that are working on a similar project which basically we are expending money by way of engineering design, that we should try and find a way that we allow for those projects to be treated in a similar manner as this project. I’d just like to get some assurances that the project, especially the one in Aklavik, will be coming forward by way of some capital...

I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s possible for his staff either in Transportation or Housing to move on this matter as quickly as possible. I think with the warm weather coming, the problem is going to get worse and I think it’s already bad enough as it is right now. The elderly gentleman did freeze his foot. He has been unable to walk for the last two months. He’s housebound because of the frostbite to his feet because of the overflows. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can also keep myself and Mr. Niditchie in tune on exactly where we’re going with this and try to move on it as quickly...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister tell me when their water licence is up so that maybe we can intervene by way of the application?