Kevin A. Menicoche

I guess the key thing is the maintenance cycles. It seems that the department often skips it because of the lower volume of traffic. I don’t think this is right, because this highway is on the national highway system and it shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s a lower amount of traffic. It’s equally important to that community and for the whole North as well.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the section of Highway No. 1 that goes up to Wrigley. Residents of Wrigley have always brought it to my attention that the maintenance cycle is not what they think it should be. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation what level of attention they pay to this section of the road. Residents often say that they do not maintain it as often as regular, and they do not pay too much attention to that road. I’d like to ask that to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister can also provide to me the amount of the operations budget that is going towards that section and a bit of a plan for maintenance for this coming summer and fall.

I’m glad the Minister offered some kind of mechanism, because that is truly needed. They often bring their complaints either to the ferry operations at Ndulee and/or call the regional office. Often they don’t get adequate responses that they feel they should. If the Minister is offering a route that the community or community leadership can contact his office directly, I’d be pleased to hear about it.

Thank you very much. We have a dialogue and that’s what we’d like to hear, and I’m pleased to be moving forward with the supplementary discussions.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. This whole budgeting cycle, committee on this side worked really hard with Cabinet to institute some funding. We made our impact on the budget. Often this side, when we get some wins, like in particular this time we got I think here in Health and Social Services overall I think we got, that was not previously authorized, $1.267 million and it was hoped that we’d have a nice, good dialogue about how to allocate these resources. I think the feeling on this side is that government, in its infinite wisdom, is saying okay, there’s extra money so we’re going to...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I think this money… I think it’s a huge opportunity to expand the guidelines and parameters around communities accessing it. I think some of the concerns I heard from the fire department in Fort Simpson that usually access this fund is that the parameters are so strict that they couldn’t find a way to utilize it. They did manage to utilize it, Madam Chair, but as we go forward with the parameters, they’re so tight that the next year they have to pretty much apply for the same program and the department says, well, you already used that for that guideline...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission does deserve to be recognized for their truly incredible amount of hard work here in the Northwest Territories. There is a lot to do yet. I’m excited that we can stand in this House, have a presentation with them and to commend them for their hard work.

I know that as I travel to the communities in the North, especially to my communities in the Nahendeh, that people were excited to see them and I think the excitement was about a chance to be heard and for their stories to be heard. Their role is like ours as...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 27-17(3), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2012-2013, be now concluded, and that Tabled Document 27-17(3) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I think that’s the type of dialogue we’re looking for – willingness – and not to say this is the way it’s going to be done. We worked hard for the last three weeks and it’s just that kind of openness and dialogue we’re prepared to continue on. It’s just that we need on record here today that if we’re not happy with this $300,000 ministerial forum, that government won’t proceed with it.