Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources with regard to, I think they call it, the Rocky Island barge spill. It was just south of Fort Wrigley. It happened in August. One of the barges ran aground.

The biggest concern, Mr. Speaker, is that there was slow response by authorities to access this spill. The other concern is that because of the slow response, the amount of spillage was not adequately reported. I’d just like to ask the Minister: what is his latest assessment of this grounding of a barge on the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I guess what we need, as well, from our Government of the Northwest Territories perspective is a good post-mortem to see why some agencies didn’t respond in time. I’d like to ask the Minister at this time: will he be conducting an assessment from the GNWT perspective as to how effective the response was to this incident?

I would like to commend our Department of Environment and Natural Resources for being there as quickly as they were. The federal department and the Coast Guard were very slow in getting there.

How do we do a balance of the fuel that was in the barge and the actual fuel that they did take out of that compartment? Once again, the constituents who were there on the site, as well, said that with the amount of sheen, the amount of spill seemed that it far, far exceeded the 20 litres that was reported. How can we get a good assessment of this, Mr. Speaker? Also, I don’t think it’s doing anybody any...

Mr. Speaker, an NTCL barge, which was being moved by a tug, hit a shoal at Wrigley Rock in the Mackenzie River early in the morning of Tuesday, August 25, 2008. The barge was loaded with diesel fuel and building supplies. The tugboat is operated by Horizon North Logistics Inc.

The Horizon North representative reported that the crew discovered a hairline fracture at the waterline when they were checking the barge after the incident. The crew deployed containment booms and contacted the necessary authorities. The crew transferred the fuel from the leaking compartment into another compartment on...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I, too, will be supporting this motion. When it first came forward and we were first made aware of this building, we got together in the spring. We had just got elected about that time. We were just getting back up to speed and getting our briefings. Being a former Member from the 15th Assembly, that’s what I saw too. Here’s a huge project plopped ahead of everybody else. We’d never seen it before in the previous Assembly.

There’s something to be said about our capital planning process, and that’s exactly it. There’s a plan and there’s a process. If we just...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. A lot of my deliberations I’ve pretty much stated already for the public record. I would just say again that Highway No. 7 is a critical piece of infrastructure that runs between Fort Simpson and Fort Liard and Fort Liard to the B.C. border. I believe and the committee believes as well that with their support we must continue to establish the importance of this highway system. It is 40 to 50 years old, and much needed reconstruction has to be continued and done on those sections. I know that we’ve got the CSIF dollars slated and that we’ve been dedicating a lot...

The issue is in regard to not being able to carry out the work. I don’t believe that is true. I believe we have the capacity and ability to do as much work as we can, but I’m not going to argue that point with the Minister or his officials. I do want to reference the motion I spoke about earlier. I’d like to move a motion here.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I would like to state that I am encouraged by my fellow committee members for moving this motion forward, and I appreciate their support. As well, I would like to request a recorded vote.

I move that this committee strongly recommends that the Department of Transportation take urgent action to increase funding in the amount of $1.4 million for Highway No. 7, kilometre 0 to 254.1 project on the Liard Highway; and further, that the necessary funding arrangements be included in the second estimates document that will be presented to the House in February of 2009 for fiscal year 2009–2010. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just want to note that for the communities, they don’t get to see this part of the Leg. work, the Committee of the Whole business. Usually we’ve concluded the TV time, as we call it, for the communities before this section. I’d like to say hello to the communities.

While we’re discussing the capital budget with respect to Transportation, in my region, the Nahendeh riding, we had a huge upset in the travelling public when the roads collapsed in the spring. There are a number of reasons for it, but the main reason is that it is an old road and structure that...