Michael McLeod

The fuel subsidy is not always automatically applied. We try to utilize the fuel subsidy to lessen the impact when there is a fairly huge or large discrepancy in what was being charged for fuel from one year to the next. That’s the situation that we look at. It’s not an automatic issuance of the subsidy. We don’t provide subsidies to every community. In some cases, in some years we don’t provide any.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a Petroleum Products Revolving Fund that we use to soften the blow of any price increases and we have been using it. We use it in a lot of our communities. However, the petroleum products program is based on full-cost recovery. The costs are based on what it takes to purchase the fuel, deliver the fuel, and have somebody, an agent in the community be responsible for the community delivery.

There’s no $5 million fund. It’s, I think, $700,000 and there’s... Sorry. There’s $420,000 left in the fund.

We certainly can check. I believe any time there’s a price increase in the community, the community is notified along with the MLA. So that notification would have been made. We also notify and get permission from Cabinet to use the fund that is in the Petroleum Products Revolving Fund. The prices include product costs, transportation costs, sales commissions, any O and M costs for the tank farm, and our fuel is purchased on a different format than the private industry does. In many cases, such as Tsiigehtchic, there are, and have been, occasions where our fuel was the lowest in the region. It...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize the returning officer from the Deh Cho, Phoebe Parent. She has, I believe, been the returning officer for every one of the three times that I’ve run for an election, so hopefully the fourth time will be the charm. Thank you.

I’ll have to check, but I believe our maintenance cycles are the same. We’re being challenged by the age of the road. We’re being challenged by the effect that water and rain storms are having on our road. Also the huge challenge is the drainage, especially on Highway No. 7 is not done and is not up to par. We are having a lot of pooling of water in our ditches and it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. So that’s all being reviewed and those things need to be addressed.

But I will commit to the Member that I will discuss this with my officials to see if there have been any reductions. As far as I know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We want that section of the highway to be a glorious piece of highway to drive. We have been working hard to accomplish that, given the age of the highway and the amount of work that’s going to be required to reconstruct that whole section of highway on both Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 7. I think we’ve been working quite well with the Member in his riding.

Highway No. 7 has seen the investment, or will see it by the end of this summer, of about $12 million that has been dedicated to that section of road. However, that’s far short of what it needs to be reconstructed...

We have people that provide oversight on all our roads on a regular basis. In the case of the Dempster, I think we’ve invested well over $28 million in the life of this government and the previous government. There are a lot of discussions between ourselves, transportation officials of the NWT, and with the Yukon. If there are any concerns, certainly, we’d like to hear further of the specifics. If there is something that needs to be reviewed, we certainly can have our headquarters staff or somebody from the regional office and provide some investigation to look at the situation. But it is...

Overall, we think it’s an excellent opportunity to the qualified businesses in the Northwest Territories to expand their service, to generate a revenue source. It may mean a different type of vehicle. It may mean a different schedule. It may mean convincing Greyhound to release some of their commitments to provide freight. All those discussions have to take place, and we certainly have to get a better understanding as to what is going to be coming in terms of what the Greyhound plans are. We don’t have that all in our hands right now.

The reason the bus service is not going to haul passengers anymore is because the Alberta government deregulated their system. It is now allowing what was a monopoly up until now, to cancel some of the trips that are coming to the rural areas that have very low market volumes.

We have certainly an interest to communicate what the plans are from Greyhound. Our information coming from the local operators is they don’t have a very good understanding as to what the Greyhound plans to do, whether they would step aside if an operator came forward from the Northwest Territories and operated up to...