Michael McLeod

Mr. Speaker, we are looking at it already. We have looked at the device and try to see if it would work in the conditions that we live in. At this point, we are not convinced it will work. However, we will study options, if not this particular device, then maybe there are other things out there that could work to allow certain individuals to keep their jobs or whatever the case may be. We will continue to monitor. We will continue to research it and share the information with the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we haven’t considered amendments to the legislation as of yet and it may be a challenge to do so as we have conditions that other jurisdictions don’t have. We have minus 40 below weather and this could be a real challenge with the equipment. We don’t have licensed mechanics to install this device on vehicles in all our communities and any time there’s a malfunction, this would be an issue. At this point we’re looking at it. We don’t have all the answers and we’re not considering it until we can have further research on how it would work. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we always try to take the opportunity, when the equipment is in the area, to work with communities to provide them with the information of what work will be done and what we can accommodate while the machine and equipment has the opportunity to do some chipsealing. Our intention, of course, is to try to get the whole road reconstructed first and then provide chipsealing. We are also focusing to do that in other areas of the NWT, but just to find adequate resources to reconstruct some of these roads is proving very challenging and it may take some time.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, the Highway No. 7 is at the point of its life where it needs to be totally reconstructed. That is going to cost roughly $250 million or close to that amount. Mr. Speaker, we have identified several areas that we’re going to be working on and focusing on this year. There is some work that’s going to be done at kilometre 76 to develop a quarry, we’re going to be doing some work from kilometres 20 to 37, and doing some embankment investigation and some construction at kilometre 170. Those are the areas that we have targeted for this year. I think, Mr. Speaker...

I can commit to the Member that we can do some class D costing of what it would take to build a winter road to his community and maybe look at a number of scenarios to see what we’re spending now and what it would cost to do a winter road overland to his communities. Thank you.

As the Member knows, there are challenges in looking at construction of an ice road over the lake to Lutselk’e. There are serious issues when it comes to ice conditions and pressure ridges and things of that nature. There’s also the safety of travellers on a lake the size of the Great Slave Lake. We are also monitoring the possibility of future development such as Avalon, which is in a stage where it’s still being considered as to what their plans will be in the long term. We can certainly start looking at routes that might be preferred, that would work, and start costing them out, but it...

Mr. Speaker, we have to make sure that we identify the difference between what happened over the weekend with the high winds and what’s been happening on the days that we have warm temperatures at the Inuvik Airport.

This weekend, as the Member is indicating, there were a lot of cancellation of flights. We have no control over that. The runway was dry, the runway was extremely good for landing conditions, it was as a result of the high winds. The airport was open and there was no concern over the staff hours at that point.

If there is an issue that the Member is wanting us to address over and...

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure where the Member is getting the indication that we are not allowing our people to work overtime. We provide all the resources to ensure that the aircraft that can land, that we have the right landing conditions. This year and over the last three years, we have been challenged with conditions that reduce the friction. That concerns the carriers. We have tried all types of methods to improve that. We have utilized our resources a lot more than we did historically, including the use of sand. We have tripled the amount of sand that we use on this airport. We certainly...

Mr. Chairman, we are just looking to confirm that number at this point. Mr. Chairman, with the current budget and what was approved in our capital budget, we believe $8 million is the total amount.

Mr. Chairman, the revolving fund is something we can control as to what the inputs and outputs are for this program. We have purchased all of our fuel for the summer resupply. We have purchased the majority of our fuel for winter’s resupply. We look, as the Member raised, to the future. We expect we are going to see rising costs, but that should not affect our revolving fund. Thank you.