Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; there are two important initiatives largely driven by the private sector. As a government, we're interested, of course, in their development. The Bathurst Inlet port is largely driven by the government and supported by the Government of Nunavut. Kitikmeot Corporation and Nuna Logistics are proposing that and they expect to file a draft environmental impact statement later on this fall. As well in the news, the joint venture is looking at upgrading their roads to the mines. I think there's another 100 kilometres they want to get a...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier, we are working with NWT Tourism to look at launching the plates. I can't really give an exact date. There are other issues involved here, too. We do have a large stock of the old plates that we wish to…That is a consideration. But we continue to work with the affected groups, and we're very supportive of it and would like to launch a new plate as well. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Indeed, my honourable friend, MLA from Yellowknife Centre, did enquire about changing the slogan on the licence plates. Working with the NWT Tourism, they do have a new branding strategy and they are recommending the term "spectacular." Our existing slogan, "Explore Canada's Arctic," we have been using that for some time. It was at that time as well, Mr. Speaker, it was recommended at that time, too, by the NWT Tourism Association and again they're recommending a change and that's something that we're prepared to look at. Mahsi.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, the Department of Transportation, working with our Department of ENR, will be monitoring the developments of the environmental impact statement that will be filed, and certainly take part to ensure the GNWT interests are considered at that point. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is my understanding that a great deal of market research has gone into the selection of a new slogan "spectacular" by the NWT Tourism Association, and we continue to express our support in changing the slogan to reflect the NWT Tourism new branding strategy. Right now, we're currently working with the Tourism Association in investigating the cost and timing of the launch of this new plate, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, we are working with the joint venture group, who are the proponents, actually the ones that are considering both routes, and working along with them. Certainly the road mining transportation alternative study that they had released in April 2007 does recommend the best short-term solution is the one that runs the southern portion of the ice road, which is the southern part. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely, discussing the access roads and the maintenance of it is an issue that certainly can be discussed the next time that we do meet with the Tlicho grand chief and the leadership. As well, I think the expectation is to be sometime at the end of June or towards the end of June to meet with regard to the Tlicho road studies. It is still early. We haven’t even gotten out there to do some preliminary work just to discuss the particular overland routes to be chosen, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some of the issue, too, is that we have private contractors that do maintain our roads and we do have some informal policies that can consider requests such as this, but in the past we've had objection by contractors, in particular in the Member's riding, saying the government is taking away private contracting work by opening access roads and plowing roads. So that's one of the issues. But just in general, Mr. Speaker, the access roads belong to the owner and the department is not responsible for maintaining and clearing of those roads. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to this particular road access that the Member is bringing up, and many of them that are actually part of the Highway No. 3 system, the access roads were constructed. We dug up a lot of the existing highway system. But the ones where people were living, Mr. Speaker, they were reconstructed and maintained at that point for them to use. But any deterioration after that, it's still considered a private road and the individual is going to have to look at getting the access road up to accessibility for his access. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In other regions, this is not too much of an issue because people do understand the application of their access roads and they do make arrangements with Transportation, but namely our contractors to have their access roads ploughed. So that is something that has happened in this region. I know that contractors in this region have been complaining to us for using highways equipment. Highways does maintain this stretch of road. Often, the contractors complain that we are taking away work from them. That is why we are not using our equipment to provide for the...