Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, I think we’ve moved in the area of being able to help the communities a little more in this budget. We have had, historically, a program that provided money for access roads that would help clear trails or allow people to build ATV roads to historic sites or tourist attraction areas. This year, through the recommendation from the Rural and Remote Communities Committee, we have expanded and increased our budget to a million dollars and changed the criteria to allow for communities to apply for dollars to work on marine or other projects that they see fit. That includes roads to...

Mr. Chairman, the concept of airport authority has been looked at. Models have been drafted. It would prove successful, I guess, if that was the desire. We have also looked at our own operations. We are working hard towards balancing the cost of operations and the revenues. Therefore, I think we are achieving the same result, in my own opinion and some of my staff. The capital, of course, is always a challenge. That is outside of the operations. That would continue to be something the government would have to look at.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this is a service that’s been provided by the private sector for some time. Cooper Barging and NTCL already provide that service. It’s not an area that we’ve looked at entering. It’s going to be fairly costly to do so and there have been no plans to move or relocate any ferries to that area.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would like to bring in witnesses.

Mr. Chairman, we have committed to doing some engineering work on this bridge and we plan to do that in the next little while. For the long term we’d like to work on the alignment of the bridge and that work will be included as part of the PDR, or the project description report, work that’s going to be done for that section. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, yes, we do provide the service to other roads. I should point out, though, that this money comes from a different department. ITI provides this money to us with the direction to provide maintenance on this road. If it was to expand that, we would, of course, require more dollars and right now this is the direction we have and the agreement we have. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we recognize it is a goal of the Member. We also have provided training, as the Member has stated, in the communities. Anybody allowed to go airside needs to be trained. We have had problems that we need to be comforted that we can overcome in those communities. If that is something we can deal with, then we can certainly look at doing the needs assessment on reinstating the lights.

Our intention at this point is to do an economic analysis of the business case. There has been some work done privately by the mines themselves and if it was to proceed any further than what we were planning, then it would have to go to a full environmental review and it would also have to have funding allocated or identified to pay for the construction portion. So we’re quite a ways from having any actual scoping in that area. Thank you.

The Member is asking some very detailed questions that I’m reluctant to provide for in the public right now. There is a team that’s put together. There’s a transition that’s happening with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation and ourselves and I have provided the information to him that we have one of our own Transportation people who is involved and we also have a firm that we have hired to work with us. We will provide that information, disclose the names, whatever information he wants when the supp comes forward for discussion. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we are taking what we learn from other highways. More specifically, Highway No. 3 over the years as we reconstructed that road. We, of course, are very focused on trying to get a solid base for Dettah to have their residents travel on, along with the appropriate dust suppressant in the cover. Easy Street is something that is very attractive, but at the same time it’s still fairly costly. We are testing to see how well it works and, in fact, we have done the junction at Dettah to see how it stands up and that will be something that’s part of the consideration for the final cap on...