Michael McLeod

I don’t believe we’re planning to realign the highway at this point right now. My understanding, and I’d have to confirm that, is we’d be looking at types of guardrails and maybe some riprap or things of that nature that would curb the erosion and try to deal with the safety issue that’s happening there.

This has been an issue that’s been ongoing for quite a few years. My staff have informed me I think as far back as 20 years ago there was a concern in that area that there was erosion. It’s continuing to be a bigger concern, but right now to try to deal with it and prevent it from causing any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did take note of the concerns raised by the Member regarding the erosion that’s taken place on Highway No. 2. We have put in some money in our budget to deal with the situation and we will be doing work on it this coming summer.

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’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...

Mr. Speaker, more thank yous. Since assuming responsibility for this project, I made every effort to provide information to all Members and to the public. We have tried to make all documents available. We have provided regular updates to the MLAs. We have set up media briefings. We have had technical briefings. We have set up a website that has a camera that shows progress of the construction. We have now formed mail-out newsletters to the general public. We provided access to the Levelton Report, something that normally would not be done for any project, under any circumstance. We have had a...

I’m not sure as to who actually holds it. I would have to go and find that out. I will commit to finding that out and providing the information to the Member. Thank you.

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...