Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Excuse me, here. Marine Transportation Services continues to improve capacity to upgrade a professional and reliable marine shipping service in a challenging Arctic environment. It remains committed to providing the best possible service to all customers. I am currently looking to instruct my department to provide me with a fulsome summary of the marine transportation system so I can have a better understanding of how it all operates, so I can ensure that it is moving forward in the proper manner. I can commit to sharing information with the Member as I receive it, and...

While I would not like to speak to that specific instance or person, as that is not appropriate for me, we have been having a larger conversation about the composition of our boards in the Northwest Territories and making sure that they more adequately and accurately reflect the people who they are supposed to be making decisions for. I commit to the Member that I will review the appointment of our board member and look into ensuring that that person is more representative of the people who they are speaking for.

I'm not sure if my department would be engaged to provide feedback to the trucking industry. However, we could definitely look into some ways and see if there is an opportunity, or a forum that maybe we need to become a member of, in order to be providing that. I did want to say, with respect to the mud and the rocks, and such, we are trying to implement, as much as we can, chipseal programs on roads that are not currently paved. Chipseal is basically a type of asphalt or pavement. We are looking to reduce the number of gravel roads that we have; however, again, very expensive. We also have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I have not read those two documents. I do commit to the Member to getting to them as soon as possible. I have had some scheduling constraints that have made delving into every departmental item quite difficult. I will commit to the Member that I will take a read of those items. Thank you.

As an engineer, a professional engineer, I take an oath to protect public safety. That may be something that's not as out there as the doctors, who take their oath to protect people, but, yes, I am very concerned to hear that buildings are being built to a substandard level, and I will commit to the Member to doing the best that I can do in the next four years. As we've all been saying, this a very, very large ship to change course on, so I'm not sure exactly how much I will be able to change. However, I commit to doing everything in my department as safely as a I can, and I will carry your...

I commit to the Member that I would definitely look into whether or not a building act is needed here. I do want to remind the Member that, at times, Northerners and northern engineers and geoscientists are involved with creating the federal standards. There have recently been four building standards that were released. There is the guideline for foundations, geotechnical investigations and foundations and permafrost-rich soils. There is a land farm one that has come out recently. I do want to state that the national codes or standards do have northern input.

I recognize what the Member is...

I think we talked about this earlier on in session. When the bids came in on the fish plant originally, they were much larger than the GNWT had allocated budgets for. I am seeing here in my notes it was about almost $6 million more than we had anticipated. The last that we discussed was that we are back looking at the actual design of the plant and how we can scale down maybe what was too ambitious of a project to begin with, and how we can bring that design back down under the budgeted price that we had anticipated. I believe that is exactly where we are right now, is revamping that plan. I...

As I am currently new to this role, I have not yet had a chance to address my federal counterparts on this specific project. I believe the Government of the Northwest Territories is doing a good job, and we are trying very much to get in front of the federal government to impress upon them our infrastructure deficit. When you asked me about ranking, I believe all of the deficits we have in our infrastructure are all critical pieces that need to be funded and we need to get them going, so there is a process. We plan to resubmit the plan as soon as we can. We have been applying actively for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure of any ranking structure within our capital plan, but I could definitely look to see if there is one. The department fully acknowledges that the Frank Channel Bridge does need to be replaced. In fact, we have been applying for funding, federal funding, to replace the bridge, and instead have actually been turned down the last times that we have tried. We have not been successful; however, we do feel that the next application has a good shot of being approved by the Canadian government, so that is our next step.

We have had early engagement with industry...

It is my understanding that it is not my place to be lobbying my colleague, the Minister, in that manner, so my answer to you would be no.