Michael McLeod

The Member has reinforced the fact that she’s very concerned about this erosion that’s happening on Highway No. 2. We’ve had our staff look at it. We’ve been monitoring the situation for quite a few years. We have other situations where there are sheer drop-offs. We have guardrails. We have guardrails on our bridges. At this point we want to ensure that it’s flagged. We will start looking at whether realignment is warranted.

I have not been informed by any of the experts that have looked at it that it’s needed right at this point, at this time, but it’s something that we will consider. We will...

No, I’m not an engineer so I couldn’t really tell the exact type of work that will be done. With discussion with my staff, they’ve indicated that we’d deal with the safety issue and we’d try to curb the erosion that’s happening there. As to what exactly is being planned, I’d have to commit to getting back with the details to the Member.

I’m not too sure if he’s asking me if I’d use the cheapest form of lighting on that stretch of highway. That’s something we’d have to discuss, of course. We take every opportunity to use energy-efficient lighting. We’ve incorporated solar panels on some of our lights that are outside of the communities. We have this year already, as part of our budget of course, put some lighting around the airport at that intersection. So as we move forward, I can’t commit that we’ll do the work that he’s requesting this year. We’ll certainly consider it. We’ll have the discussion with the City and see how we...

Thank you. I think that included a request for a walking path. I don’t think that’s what we were discussing initially. We certainly agree. I think that nobody is going to contest the fact that highway street lighting would reduce the potential concerns about a conflict between vehicles and pedestrians. There are other modes, of course, that involve a lot more investment, but street lighting is something that we’d certainly consider at this point. I agree that we probably need a longer term plan that would incorporate walking paths and bike paths and things of that nature, but at this point we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has asked if I would consider putting lighting. Of course, I would consider putting lighting on that stretch of road.

Mr. Speaker, having said that, safety is an issue on all our highways. The section that the Member has raised is part of our inventory. We do speeds on that portion of highway and we have incorporated a highway safety operations review on all our roads and we have plans to put in more guardrails, signs and things of that nature. That includes also looking at putting lighting where we have some intersections. We’ve done some of the intersections...

I was going to say right up front that we didn’t have any money or resources to allocate to this situation, but it is a serious issue. It’s been raised by a number of sectors of people that live in Hay River and also the Hay River Reserve. We want to follow up on our discussions with the federal government. We are hoping our discussions with the Coast Guard are going to be successful; I can’t say that it is right now. We haven’t had anything confirmed in that area.

We need to bring in the federal government, especially the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. This is their area of responsibility...

I guess several Ministers could have a role to play in the concern that’s being raised by the Member. The fisheries are being impacted, as was stated in her comments. I guess it could fall under ITI. As a potential disaster, it could fall under MACA. NTCL is concerned about the channel there, so I guess that would fall under DOT.

We as a government have had the concern raised to us by the municipality and we have indicated to them that there was some potential programs that we could flag for them to provide that information to them. We’ve also had a meeting with the Member for Hay River North...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to provide Members and the public with an update on the Deh Cho Bridge.

Construction has reached a key milestone with the launch of the truss, a key component of the bridge superstructure. The truss is a continuous steel assembly that connects each of the piers and will eventually carry the concrete deck panels and asphalt driving surface. Launching of the truss is the process of assembling the steel members onshore and then pushing them in a continuous line out from the shore to span the piers. Once the truss is in place the contractor will erect the two...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe the Member has seen any contract from any projects we have across the government. It is not a practice that we provide the information to Regular Members on. We would need the consent of the contractors and, in most situations, the contractors would not agree to it, so that is why we haven’t provided it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Member for thanking me. I think this is the first time he’s ever thanked me for anything I’ve done on this project.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had a guarantee on this project all along on the work that was to be done. I think we have better than what would be in the bond at this point. We have cash in the bank. We have done an analysis. We have had our contractors look at what needs to be rectified. In most cases, Mr. Speaker, it’s a matter of going in and doing the actual testing, as we haven’t had all the documentation that we require. But to go in and do...