David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today with me I have Kelly Kaylo, assistant deputy minister for Industry, Tourism and Investments.

Mr. Speaker, I have been in politics now for about 16 years and I do pride myself on being able to make the right decisions. In the case of having lifeguards at Fred Henne Park, I’ve committed to doing my best to ensure that we get all the answers. It’s not an issue of funding and it shouldn’t be an issue of funding. If it is going to make Fred Henne beach safer, there will be lifeguards at that beach next summer. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, one of those ideas could be to reduce the swimming area. The Lifesaving Society, in conducting the audit, I believe there were divers out there who had masks and snorkels and surveyed the ground under the water at the beach. A lot of this they believe is caused by the way the lake moves and whether or not you fill those holes in one day, they may in fact be there a few weeks later.

There are ways we can mark those holes if they are there. We wouldn’t want to have a swimming area where there were these holes and opportunities for people to get into an area that was with water that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome the Scott family to the gallery here today and, as well, I wanted to say thank you to the Lifeguards for Lodune, volunteers headed by Tanya Silke. Tanya is a former constituent of mine in Kam Lake. I’m sorry to have lost her to Yellowknife Centre. I also have another constituent that I want to recognize, too, and that is Lindsay Ohrling. Again, thank you so much for all you do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I could get the detail of that for the Member. We are going to look at the construction of a screened-in picnic shelter area at Dory Point. The exact location of the shelter itself I think we’d be certainly looking towards working with the community to see where exactly they want the shelter and would like to see the shelter constructed. I think that would happen before construction would take place on the picnic shelter. So I can commit to the Member and to the House that we’ll go back to the department and ensure that they have talked to the community so that we make...

As we go forward, I think there are and will be other mechanisms to deal with the situation at Prelude Lake, not specifically to the park, but I know there are a number of other issues due to the use on the lake itself, not exactly in the park. So we would continue to work with MACA to address some of those concerns. We are going to advance the Department of Lands with devolution. So certainly there’s going to be opportunity for us to address other issues as they arise and as they impact the use of Prelude Lake Territorial Park. Thank you.

Thank you. When it comes to the safety of our teens and youth here in the Northwest Territories, we’re always willing to talk with anyone, and I certainly will have the discussion with the Minister of ECE on this. We have to look at the high rates of preventable collisions, injuries and fatalities amongst our young drivers. For now, our focus is going to be on Project Gearshift and opportunities to get professional driver training into other high schools around the Northwest Territories and to young people who need that necessary training to get their driver’s licence. Thank you.

I don’t have the parameters that the Member wants, but I’ll give him the stats in the House, the stats that I do have. Yes, there is regional disparity in that. The number of young drivers, youth that have a Class 7, a probationary Class 5, or a Class 5 licence among youth aged 15 to 24 is the parameter that we have, if you look at Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith, 67 percent of youth 15 to 24 have one of those three types of drivers’ licences. If you get outside of those three centres, that number drops to only 33 percent and it is something, through this work that we’re doing with...

Yes, at the earliest opportunity in the schedule, we can work out the schedule, but as soon as my schedule permits, I’d be more than happy to visit the communities in the Mackenzie Delta. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In respect to training opportunities for communities in the Mackenzie Delta, I would expect there would be training opportunities as a result of the Inuvik-Tuk highway.

In regard to the Willow River access road, we still haven’t got the funds earmarked for the Willow River access road. So without any funding for the construction of that road or advancing that road project, there would be no training opportunities. Thank you.