David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The highway remains safe. We have made the effort to lower the posted speed limit on that highway.

The Member is right; it has soaked up a tremendous amount of capital dollars over the years, and is in constant requirement for funding for maintenance and maintenance work. The work has been studied on maintenance. We are doing research on the road itself, again, to try to mitigate the impact climate change has had on that highway. We’ll have to continue to put money into that highway. Through Corridors for Canada III we’re looking at another investment to rehabilitate...

Thank you. If the Member did raise that issue in the House in regard to the expansion of the airport in Aklavik, I will take a look back at that.

On the emergency airstrip for Tsiigehtchic, again, unless the Member, perhaps he’s raised that in a Member’s statement. I don’t recall that as well, but maybe we’ll go to the deputy minister for a response to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The gate itself was in the neighbourhood of half a million dollars. The good news is that that gate does work. The bison that did appear on that bridge and in photos that appeared on social media didn’t go across the Texas gate that was installed. It in fact went around and jumped a guardrail and got onto the bridge. The Department of Transportation is currently looking at a remedy to see that bison can’t go down on the right-hand side of the bridge and jump the guardrail and get on that bridge again. So we’re taking steps to ensure that that does not happen again.

Again...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t believe we’ve had any discussions with the neighbouring communities, but that’s something we could certainly undertake. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, before I go to Mr. Neudorf for a response on the EK35, I just wanted to provide the Member that I believe it’s a fair comment that the Member has on the provision of a snow blower in Trout Lake, and as we move toward having the new runway in place in Trout Lake we can see how that may fit into future plans for the department. I appreciate the Member bringing that up and it’s something I can’t make a commitment on today, but we definitely will look at that. Thank you. We’ll go to Mr. Neudorf for the EK35 question. Thank you.

Thank you. Certainly the government in its interdepartmental exercise when it comes to preparing ourselves for the development in the Sahtu, that work has happened already. If the Member is looking for a checklist, we can certainly develop a checklist. But the most important thing here is the people in the Northwest Territories will be making those decisions on whether or not development happens in the central Mackenzie Valley, and central to that is the fact that the people of the Sahtu should have, should they choose to have the aspirations to develop those resources, the same, not people in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We would, of course, look at the winter roads and the provision of services on those winter roads. We try to treat them all the same, but in the case of an area like the Sahtu with all the activity that is going on there, obviously we have had to do more in that area because of the number of trucks going across the winter road.

I’m not sure if the Member has a specific question. We would be more than happy to try to answer it. We maintain. We build I think it is close to 1,500 kilometres of winter roads in this territory every winter. Thank you.

Thank you. A lot of these are items that we are still currently trying to work out with the contractor. We’re hoping to have the Trout Lake Airport complete by next summer, and we have experienced some wet weather, some other issues with the project itself, but we are continuing to work out and iron out the difficulties to try to get the project completed by next summer. I have made a commitment to the Member that we’re going to sit down with the community and make sure the project does see its way through to completion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One thing is for sure and that is we have to do our homework, and part of the trip to southeastern Saskatchewan and into the Bakken was to do some of that homework, educate ourselves on the process of hydraulic fracturing, as was the case last year when we went to Calgary, went to a lab there and got time in front of the regulator in Alberta and also the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission that happened in Calgary last year.

We need to ensure that we do everything we can to make an informed decision as a government, as a people. I mentioned it yesterday, the aspirations of the...

Last year may have been the remnants of the BCP funding. We don’t have any BCP funding this year; hence, we have no dollars for Highway No. 8. Again, I can’t, you know, reiterate enough how important it is that we are successful with our Corridors for Canada III proposal to the federal government. We need this investment in our infrastructure across the territory. Thank you.