Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is our concern, also. We had some of our people, our staff, go onto the boat last night, and we are taking the steps to ensure that this vessel is safe. It is an asset that is owned by the government, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that it's safe and the security is there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we indicated to the House that the ferry was going to be shut down yesterday evening. That did happen. The contractor did park the ferry at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, so the service was discontinued. Operations are now suspended until further notice. We are considering the actions of the contractor to be a breach of contract and have notified the contractor, or are in the process of notifying the contractor, that it is so. We will look at ways to continue the service sometime early next week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Ms. Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; Sheila Bassi-Kellet, director of corporate affairs for Municipal and Community Affairs; and Mara Heder, our legal counsel.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we did increase our budget. I will certainly commit to keeping it at the level where we have invested. We have a budget authority of roughly $70,000 a year. We’ve now raised that up to roughly $250,000, and we will continue to stay at that level. As we apply dust control over the next couple of years, I think we will see improvements in those areas. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now our focus is to do a lot of the work that is required along the highway: the drainage, the road widening, the realignment. Those things are all required on this road. We also have to replace most of the culverts that are along the Highway No. 8 system. This year, I think we replaced 60 culverts and reconstructed roughly 93 kilometres of that whole road system. We have not included a chipsealing program for that highway as yet. Maybe that’s something we will look at as part of the legacy program, or some of the socioeconomic impacts of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, we recognize the need for more work to be done on Highway No. 8. Highway No. 8 is roughly 262 kilometres long, and the majority of it is requiring reconstruction to handle the traffic volumes, but also because of the age of the highway. We’ve had a very tough summer. We’ve had a lot of moisture and a lot of rain. It’s created havoc on a lot of our roads, not only on Highway No. 8. Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 7 are also experiencing the same conditions. We have done the preliminary engineering on the Highway No. 8 system. We have looked at the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize a constituent of mine, and chairman of the WCB, Mr. Denny Rodgers. We welcome him to the Assembly. His daughter is one of our Pages today.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I had a good statement and some questions, but then I just realized that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment wasn’t here, so I will have to save those until Friday. I was trying to come up with a topic that I have been hearing a lot about in my time in Inuvik. One of the main complaints I had from Inuvik, and people that drive it, is the condition of the Dempster Highway.

Mr. Chairman, the basis for the amendments to this legislation is to empower the communities to give them the ability to do a number of things; in this case, the transfer of unpaid charges to property taxes. We would expect that the municipality would notify the client that they are in arrears of any type of service, and I am sure that that is the practice that is in place now.

However, in a case where there are unpaid charges that may be lingering for some time, the municipality will have the ability to transfer to the individual's property taxes, and there is no real legal notification...

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman.