Katrina Nokleby

Technically, Infrastructure. I would like to clarify that nothing has been taken away from the runway in Fort Smith, and the functionality of the airport is exactly as it was prior to the narrowing. Cell phones used to be this big. Now they are this big. Getting smaller does not mean anything has been reduced in functionality. Should anybody feel that the Fort Smith airport is not performing as it needs to, including being able to land 737s, I would encourage them to have the airlines raise that safety concern through the safety protocols under Transport Canada. I don't mean to belabour that...

As I said before, I can't tell you when the business cases will be completed. I do believe, in the mandate, there isn't a timeline established at this point, but that is going to be dependent on what we get. I did just want to point out some of the value. A 2018 historic value of production report is estimated, from the mines within or around the Slave Geological Province, at $45 billion, so I would argue that that would be, I guess, the mineral resource potential of that region. I think that there is a clear case for why these should go forward, but I will commit to going back to the...

I think that one thing that we do need to keep in mind, while maybe the 25 percent that we are putting forward is very dear, or definitely we have things we could be spending our money on, we do need to remember that that has leveraged us a 75 percent amount of funding from the federal government that can only be used towards these types of projects. While we are spending money that potentially we could use elsewhere, we are actually bringing in larger amounts of dollar into our territory which is a contribution to our economy that we wouldn't have otherwise.

Oftentimes in hard economic times...

Thank you. Yes, so we are currently in the background sort of data collection, study, where we are hoping to, at the end of that, be able to produce the business cases, which would then include all of the costing, et cetera, for those projects. I do not have that information on hand at the moment.

It's my understanding that that specific contract has gone through the ATIPP process. I do recognize that I need to get more information on why those specific signatories were blacked out. I do believe there are issues around privacy, of actually having the signature of people in documents that were provided so that they cannot be electronically copied. However, if it's an issue of that, then I would look into why the actual name itself is not provided. I will get that information and send it back to the Member.

When is this going to change? I can tell you it's going to change right now. I am a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to acknowledge Denny Rodgers, who is the chair of my department at the BDIC. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the first I've heard of that, so I will definitely commit to looking into that. I just also wanted to let you know that the department has just asked me to come to Hay River on the 23rd of March, so it looks like somebody was listening to the Member somewhere, and it sounds like a trip to Hay River is being planned sooner rather than later.

I can get back to you with the details. However, my understanding is we can land significant-sized airplanes on the Yellowknife runway, so I would have to get back to you on that. However, the Yellowknife airport has a master plan. Sorry, I will have to get back to the Member. I am being reminded of my protocols.

There is a Yellowknife airport master plan. If you'll just bear with me to let me find the correct page here, I can give you some details on that. The Yellowknife airport is being looked at. Oh, where did I lose it here? It's being looked at for its own capacity and its own merits...

I apologize. Could the Member repeat his question?

[Microphone turned off] ...have the numbers on what's happening for this next period of time with the funding that we already received from the federal government and the money that we had committed, and we discussed that as part of the mains in the budget discussion. We have our funding at the moment for the work we are carrying forward. I can provide you with those actual numbers if you like. I do think we have provided them in the past. I just do not have them right in front of me right now.