Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, the plans are to have the signs installed from Norman Wells to Good Hope. If he’s asking me how many actual signs, I’m not sure if I have that in front of me. We have different categories and size, of course, and we have a number of 250 warning signs and advisory signs that will go from Wrigley to Norman Wells and then to Good Hope and category 2, which are the larger signs, we’ll be purchasing six large warning signs to put along the route within the areas of the communities. We’re also doing a couple of signs in the area of what we could classify as category three and these...

Mr. Chairman, these dollars identified here are only for the Prelude Lake access road. Thank you.

I know the Member’s got a low opinion of this project and I’m surprised he would even stoop that low to ask about whether we’re going to do a contract without bonding for this price. I mean, that would be ridiculous. Of course we have bonding.

Mr. Chairman, we have recognized and heard from the Member and he has made it very evident that he has concerns with runway lighting in those three communities. We have experienced problems, of course, in those three communities with runway lighting. They are very expensive to replace. I have had some discussion with our staff to see if we can explore some best practices of how we can avoid the situation of damaging the lights. I will certainly keep the Member informed if we are going to move to the next step on that. At this point, we need to be reassured that we are not going to be replacing...

This question was asked yesterday, too, and I responded by indicating that we had one full-time position that was there and another half-time position that was dedicated to this project. We have a number of other people that have responsibilities, although not full time. Our deputy minister also spends time on it. Our legal people. Things of that nature. There are a couple of positions that are committed, but there are others that only have certain responsibilities in that area. There is a fairly small group of people that work on this project.

Mr. Chairman, we’re just having a quick discussion here to see if we can nail down an actual time frame and that’s difficult. It would depend on how fast the Giant Mine reclamation project moves forward. So I can’t give him a specific time frame.

Mr. Chairman, the intention of this program was to have the ability for our officers to go outside of the weigh scales and do other things rather than being in a position to do a lot of the administrative stuff that was causing concern and it also allowed for a mobile permitting system. It’s working quite well. We’re quite pleased of the results. There was a couple of small glitches as we introduced the program. However, it’s very successful and, yes, it is ongoing.

Mr. Speaker, the arrangements for slots and the steel production have been made. The responsibility would go to the contractor to order the steel and that is something we need to move forward on fairly quick. Mr. Speaker, that was my information provided to the Member. The steel, however, ordered through one company can be utilized through a different company, if that was the desire of this project. Thank you.

The Member has raised a question about the MOU. That is something this department follows. It was an agreement signed by our government and the people of the Sahtu. We have targets and track the amount of investment that goes to the aboriginal governments. Or I should say the Sahtu-based businesses. Right now in the Sahtu for the last year we expended 70 percent to those companies.

Mr. Chairman, the Yellowknife Airport development plan includes allowance for commercial development on the airport site more on the new bypass area. We have worked with the city for many years to avoid any type of disruption and we continue to look at air or related businesses that have some kind of function with the air industry and to do with the airport, and we will continue to try to focus in that area.