Michael McLeod

We have our ferry program to ease the barriers that are caused by our waterways and other obstacles that challenge us. Of course, there are certain times of year that address this. We have worked with other communities. We recently worked with the community of Wrigley on the Ndulee ferry to change time schedules. It was important for the community to have the ferry operating during daylight hours and it was also a safety issue for our workers, and we came to an agreement on that ferry program. We can certainly talk to the MLA and community members if there is a desire to see the ferry schedule...

Mr. Speaker, I think it was last year was the first time this road was constructed to Thor Lake and it’s opening up an opportunity there that wasn’t there historically. It’s something I’ve asked my officials to look into, the possibilities that this new infrastructure or this new allowance has put before us. We’d certainly have to make sure of the intention of the company that’s opening up the road, that it’s going to be there for the long term. This development is still in the exploration stage and we would have to investigate the possibilities and the challenges that opening up a winter road...

Of course, the longer we can run it, the more benefit it will be to the travelling public that utilizes that ferry. We expect that we’re going to have a warm spell here in the next couple of days and that will probably help us with the weather conditions. We still think the 25th is going to be a date that we will probably be challenged with the weather and ice. We will follow normal protocol for notifying the community and the general public. Normally we advertise that there will be periodic closure well in advance, then we start giving the 48- and 24-hour notices that we will be pulling the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve listened very carefully to the Member’s statement, like I always do. I have to point out a couple of things that the Member raised.

First of all, he mentioned that there are new laws restricting the landing of airplanes on the highway. That’s not a new law. That’s something that’s existed for quite some time now.

I’m not sure what gives the Member any indication that we’re pulling out the ferry. There has been no notice that we’ll be pulling out the ferry. The ferry will operate conditions permitting.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated before, I have directed my officials to look into this issue. The Member for Tu Nedhe has raised this as a concern, as something he wanted to see move forward, and we are exploring the opportunities. Of course, as we do that, we will take into consideration comments from the community and certainly include that as part of the traditional knowledge and that we’d like to have that discussion with the people who are familiar with the lake, familiar with ice and things of that nature. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the Member for Tu Nedhe raises a serious issue. We have many communities across the Northwest Territories that are served by winter roads and barging systems. Low water has become an issue for many of these communities, and also the warmer winters are becoming a challenge to service some of the communities in getting the ice bridges and winter roads in place, namely on the Mackenzie/Fort Providence and also in the Tlicho communities.

Mr. Speaker, I point out that if there was a situation, and right now it’s hypothetical, but if there was ever a situation and the barges couldn’t...

I’m glad the letter referenced the letter that we sent him, because I thought he didn’t get it. In the letter we indicated that the probability would be that the 25th was the date that weather would force us to close by. Weather conditions are what are going to dictate the operation of the ferry.

The ferry historically has run from anytime, or closed anytime from the 19th of October right to November 1st and we’re going to make every effort to keep running. Of course, the weather will dictate how long we can run. Ice conditions, of course, are going to be what’s going to factor in this and...

Again the Member has demonstrated his attitude to this bridge by his predictions that it’s going to be past the deadlines that we’ve laid out for him. I’m not sure what he’s pointing at and using to measure this with. We still anticipate that this project is on schedule. The steel is en route. There’s a significant amount of steel that’s coming forward for the superstructure. There is the decking that will be following. Also the ‘A’ pylons. We expect the steel for the superstructure will be in place by March of this coming next calendar year. Things are going well, as much as that might upset...

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure there is a deficit the Member is referring to and if this bridge was clouded in red ink, I am sure the Member has reached into his can of paint of doom and gloom and painted this project that colour on his own.

Mr. Speaker, there is no indication right now that there will be a deficit. The traffic volumes are going to allow for us to accommodate all the debt on this bridge. In fact, if the traffic volumes go up and we start to see more projects come on stream, we will probably have some significant surplus on this that will be applied back to some of the costs...

That again is a difficult commitment to make. We do provide the information to communities, and on many occasions the communities have taken the opportunity to piggyback their initiatives along with what is happening on the highway alongside the community. We’ve had good discussions with some of the communities already about chipsealing and other types of road servicing. We have provided the same courtesy to the community of Fort Resolution and they have taken advantage of it and plan to do some chipsealing in their community. We do provide advice, and technical staff are made available so...