David Ramsay

Thank you, Madam Chair. We hope to go to a Transportation Strategy update in the next year. We also need to come up with a plan and we are currently working on a plan on an infrastructure program from the federal government, a cost-shared program, where we could best utilize those capital dollars in the NWT in our transportation system. We are working on that and that is definitely a work in progress. As soon as we get something concrete, we’ll be coming to the Members to share that plan with them. Thank you.

On a small scale, like you see in this year’s budget, $60,000, but that’s just an effort to try to help folks out in Hay River. But we do not have the millions of dollars it would require to dredge the port of Hay River, nor is it our responsibility.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have nothing to add aside from echoing your comments that it is a hypothetical question. Thank you.

With Highway No. 7, that is a capital question but I’m more than happy to respond to it. We’ve got $1 million in this year’s capital budget. Going forward we’ve used the number of $250 million would be required for the complete reconstruction of Highway No. 7, which is necessary, but we don’t have $250 million to put towards the complete reconstruction of that highway. What we do have is a plan to come forward with $3 million in capital every year for 10 years, I believe is the length of time, to put a dent in the requirements that are needed on Highway No. 7. With the advance of Prairie Creek...

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right I’ve got Russell Neudorf, deputy minister of the Department of Transportation. To my left, Mr. Daniel Auger, assistant deputy minister, Department of Transportation.

That would be under the capital so, no, it’s not in this budget. Thank you.

No.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we haven’t made decisions in this House on whether to move the project forward, we haven’t got the funding agreement from the federal government and the approvals from the federal government, that hasn’t happened. So, obviously, we have not made a decision on procurement for the Inuvik-Tuk highway. That will happen after we get all the approvals. When we get the decision to move forward in this House is when we will make decisions on procurement and not until then. Thank you.

It is still a relatively new system. It’s somewhere around 80 percent in terms of registered users of that toll system. We still have some to capture, but compliance has been good where we continue to move forward with toll collection.

That would come from the ownership at Harry Winston and their commitment to the Northwest Territories to see diamond mining be a success here in the NWT. We’ve got every assurance from the ownership at Harry Winston that will happen. We have known them for a number of years now, having been partial owner at the Diavik Mine, and we certainly look forward to their continued involvement in diamond mining here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.