Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, my first job as Minister was to go down to Ottawa and pound on the doors and meet federal Minister Cannon and advise him that this was one of our priority projects. The Deh Cho Bridge is a top priority, in fact. So over the course of Christmas and spring, our deputy minister had gone to Ottawa as well and talked with them. Of course, the federal budget unfolded, Mr. Speaker, and they did announce all kinds of money, and bureaucratically, even though they announced it, Mr. Speaker, they still had to work out the details...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think we can be publishing a full-page ad, but I can, once again, commit to getting more information out to the public if it’s with the Public Utilities board; or else I can contact the NWT Power Corporation, the Minister responsible, and see if we need more consultation or more advertising of this process for the rates, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That’s a level of detail that I don’t have right now. There were not two riders in that application that was brought before the Public Utilities Board. It must have been a separate application for the T rider. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. There are a couple of zones that we do speak of when there’s a general rate application; one’s hydro communities and one’s the diesel communities. The general rate application process is usually explained by the proponent which is, in this case, the NWT Power Corporation. I can commit to getting more information on this matter to explain to the Member and the public consultation process, and I’ll get that back to the Member, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The interim rate rider that was approved to the NWT Power Corp is typically asked in a rate application until a final decision is made. With the recent NWTPC general rate application, that is going to take, we figure, up to a year to get to final approval. In the interim there has been a case made that due to the increased cost of fuel and operating costs, that they do need an increase for their operating expense. We do say that it is refundable in the case that the final approval is less than what has been asked for in the general rate application, Mr...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. A lot of the discussion that happens with the federal government we can look to the past to kind of see how they treat our submissions in Corridors to Canada I when we applied to the strategic infrastructure fund. What they had done, once they had given us one percent of the $2 billion they had announced, and that’s a kind of similar level of funding that we’d been looking at there, Mr. Speaker. There will be that as well as the new highway borders infrastructure fund that the Minister had indicated in his budget statement. That still hasn’t been decided. All...

Good afternoon and thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

I would like to, first of all, just indicate to the honourable Member that the Inuvik to Tuk road and access to source 177 is a long-standing priority of this government and the Member is also aware that at the conclusion of this session, officials from the Department of Transportation will be going up to Tuk to meet with the Inuvik/Tuk committee and discuss some of the issues surrounding getting to the source 177.

Further to that, a lot of the cost that’s included in the whole Inuvik to Tuk highway, the access to source 177, is...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Right now, there was an offer of $25,000 that has all indications showing it’s unexpended yet for the purpose of conducting initial surveys to access the gravel at source 177 and that’s going to be part of the discussions that’s going to occur with the Inuvik/Tuk committee with the officials from the Department of Transportation. Mahsi cho.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. All these submissions were made to the federal government on Corridors for Canada II and connecting to Canada, and the indications of that Inuvik to Tuk highway are in those documents and we’re waiting once again for federal commitment. There’s been nothing said to this point and previous discussions. There was actually no uptake. The Member spoke about our Premier meeting with the federal government to that respect. It was discussed, but there was actually, there were non-responsive indications of a program specifically for Tuk highway there, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. At this time I’d like to recognize two Pages that I have with me from Fort Liard: Mr. Tyre Timbre, as well as Mr. Lindsay Berreault, and I’d like to thank them and congratulate them for their hard work this week. Mahsi cho.

---Applause