Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been a strange session. I have been doing things twice about the weddings and now I am doing it again for the Pages. I would like to thank the Pages from Fort Simpson, Hilary Norwegian and Tanis Browning, for helping us here this week. Mahsi cho.

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Mr. Speaker…(English not provided)

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say that back in 2003 during the election, I was glad to be elected to the Legislature. At that time I didn’t have good use of my aboriginal language and people always said go to the communities, go visit the elders, and that’s what I’ve done. Now I can visit them, drink and have tea with them and listen to them and to their stories. I receive lots of guidance from them. I am very happy to say that there is an actual granny from Nahanni. I have spoken with her and she is very happy, Mr. Speaker, to see that in some small...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with great pride that, further to my Member’s statement last week, I acknowledge two additional marriages in my riding and my community of Fort Simpson. They are gentlemen and ladies all. Mr. John Balsillie to Ms. Laurie Fradsham, young professionals of Fort Simpson which our North desperately needs. Also, Mr. T.G. Wilson to Ms. Kathy Blondin, young students who will become our young professionals that our North desperately needs. Mahsi cho.

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Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to recognize the two Pages who are from Nahendeh who are with us here this week: Ms. Hilary Norwegian and as well as Ms. Tanis Browning. I’d like to thank them for their efforts and sure glad to see our consensus government hard at work. Mahsi cho.

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Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to assure to the Member that the money that was designated for the Bear River Bridge did not get reallocated somewhere else. Well, the money in the bridge program stayed in the bridge program for our roads north up the Mackenzie Valley, Mr. Speaker. Of the $25 million from the Bear River Bridge, that had to be reallocated to three other bridges on our Mackenzie Valley winter road system, Mr. Speaker, and that’s where the allocations got reallocated to. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Once again, the Bear River Bridge is a priority in this...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As such, it’s a priority in the CSIF strategy document for our government to build that bridge and it still is a priority for us to construct the Bear River Bridge. However, financing right now due to increasing inflationary pressures have put it out of reach of our current budget and that’s what we’re looking at right now, Mr. Speaker. Thanks.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Our Chipseal Program is something that we monitor. There is a five-year cycle for it; it takes about five years for the chipseal…It does deteriorate. We do have an annual budget to address this on Highway No. 3. that’s about $650,000 to $700,000. The first sections that were done on Highway No. 3 were about five years ago and we’re addressing those right now, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The department takes great pride in all its projects. We complete them to the best of our ability and we will continue to do so. We pride the contractors that work for our department as well. The Member did mention that climate change is affecting the highway and we do maintain that, as well, Mr. Speaker. There are many, many ice lenses that were discovered during construction and we continue to repair those and mitigate them as conditions dictate. Mahsi.

The concerns raised on Highway No. 3 have been raised by the chief of Behchoko as well as the MLA…

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to say to the Member that it was my pleasure to accompany him to travel to the Sahtu region in July. It was great to be there and see the country and meet with the communities there, especially in Tulita. They were very concerned about the Bear River Bridge project and I indicated to them at that time it was once again due to inflationary pressures. So I had to red flag the project, we had to put it aside and we have to assess our current budget and the current federal announcements of new funding of how we’re going to best move this project...