David Ramsay

Thank you, Madam Chair. As soon as decisions are made, the approvals come in from the federal government. We want to stand behind this project. We want the public to know fully what the Government of the Northwest Territories intends to do with this project, how we’re going to build the highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. So we will be forthcoming with information as it becomes available to us. Again, we aren’t quite there yet. We have to get approvals. We have to get the funding agreement from the federal government. But I promised the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning an...

Madam Chair, that’s the first that has been brought to my attention. If the Member has some specifics of people waiting an inordinate amount of time to be licensed or to have a test, I would be more than happy to try and address those concerns if his constituents or others are having those types of difficulties. I haven’t heard those concerns personally. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories is monitoring the situation in the Yukon. We have to continue to analyze the implications of this decision over the next little while, and we certainly have to be cognizant of the implications that it could have here in the Northwest Territories. We are following this and we are paying close attention to what’s happening in the Yukon.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There would be separate documents but we certainly rely on community emergency plans and anything we do at airports in communities.

The road conditions and travelling conditions would be updated daily, but I certainly take the Member’s point and we’ll try to populate the website with much more information.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 6-17(4), I wish to table the following document, entitled Mackenzie Valley Winter Road.

Mr. Speaker, it would have been a year worth of tolls on the bridge. It would have been a year’s worth of interest paid on that money which would have well exceeded the $7.6 million the Member talks about. That bridge is open. Again, it’s serving the public of the Northwest Territories doing what it was supposed to do and intended to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The public in the Northwest Territories, the transportation companies, everybody has access to the Deh Cho Bridge. It has been open since November 30th. That is a great benefit to the residents here in the Northwest Territories. We got the bridge open on November 30th of 2012. Had we chosen a different path as the Member suggests, we would still be in court, the bridge wouldn’t be open and we’d still be asking ourselves many questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my right is deputy minister of Transportation, Mr. Russell Neudorf and to my left is the assistant deputy minister of DOT, Mr. Daniel Auger.