Michael McLeod

Mr. Chairman, this was reviewed. We had staff take a look and provide us some recommendations. To date, it hasn’t been something that we feel that will have a lot of buy in. We are not convinced that it’s something that we would be successful in moving forward. Therefore, we’re not completely eliminating it, but we’re not going to be spending a lot of energy on something that we don’t think we’ll have put in place.

Mr. Chairman, the Member is correct; there is a whole lot of chipsealing going on and we would like to extend that into the Member’s riding in the Mackenzie Delta. We are well committed to doing the financial analysis. The Member has raised it before. We will look at the cost factor and look at the analysis of what it would take in terms of investment for chipsealing or Easy Street in the area of Fort McPherson. We are going to do that this summer, if that makes sense, and if we can demonstrate that there is some viability, then we will move to the next stage of trying to test an area in the...

Mr. Speaker, a lot of Members are asking me to state whether the project is going to be on time and on schedule with no cost overruns. That is something that I can’t guarantee. In this case, the project is on schedule and within budget. We don’t expect to see any cost overruns that we can recognize at this point. We will keep the Member informed. We will certainly do a review of that project as we move forward also. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we are finalizing a lot of discussion with the development corporation of the area. There are a number of areas that we’re working on for gravel production and roadway construction and quarry site development. We will be bringing something to Cabinet for consideration. Also, to the question of can dollars be carried over, the answer to that is yes.

I agree, bridges are good, although fairly expensive. There has been some investigation on the Peel area, there is some technical research that has been done, we just need to be able to look at for the long term how we can accommodate that request. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, of course we would commit to providing and doing a more in-depth action than what we have here. There’s a lot of work that we’ve agreed to embark on in areas of what’s best practices within our own organizations. We are looking at bringing in another position to help us develop a long-term plan. There are many parts to the Green Light, some with other departments. If the Member feels that we are falling short, we certainly would accept any recommendations he has and move it to a move rigorous process, as he’s indicated, that would satisfy the Members of this House.

Mr. Chairman, I am not sure why the Member would be questioning if we had 2,200 kilometres of road. It certainly can’t go missing. I would like to confirm that is the number that we have in the NWT and roughly 800 of those kilometres are chipsealed. It is our goal and our intention to provide a chipseal or some kind of stable topping on our roads. We recognize that it allows for a better preservation of our highways, so that is the intention.

As for how long it takes, it is a long-term goal and as we move forward, as we progress with the reconstruction, we intend to follow with either a...

I’m not sure if I’m the person to be asking about the recreational policy. We do have a very attractive arrangement and it’s at a reduced rate as it is. It’s on airport land so the decision is ours.

We do have a design. We do have a design that consists of a moveable concrete steel pad at the landings so that we can deal with the different fluctuating levels that we have been challenged with, and we will have that discussion with the people of that area, the Gwich’in people and the people of the communities of Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson and the leadership from that area as to how they view this. We wanted to be ready to have that in place for discussion with all the information by the next go round on the water licence. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we do have a document that was put together entitled Green Light that was shared with the Members. It was put together primarily by the Department of Transportation. As to where we’re at on some of the initiatives in it, I’ll have Mr. Neudorf speak to that.