Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s certainly been a difficult task to have all the safety requirements incorporated into a winter road the same as an all-season road that the Member is requesting and has been very diligent about asking and raising concerns about safety. We’ve been trying to accommodate that. Over the years we’ve been putting signs to indicate the corners and to indicate there would be a safety issue as traffic was moving forward. The challenge, though, is to have the signs stay up. There have been a lot of times when the signs have been disappearing. We’ve had signs that probably are...

First of all, I have to correct the Member. The rules do not apply to only one specific jurisdiction. The rules for 2010 application will come forward and apply to all jurisdictions for all aircraft that are uncertified. That is the issue here, is there are two planes currently flying in the North that cannot demonstrate they can land on the runways we currently provide. Until they become certified, until they can find that information or justify it through testing, that won’t be allowed. We have taken the liberty and opportunity to write to companies that may be able to support us in...

Mr. Chairman, we would be pleased to provide that information to the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has raised this issue with me on several occasions. It is certainly a concern. We have a senior who has had a lot of problems with the runoff of water from one of the lakes in the area. We’ve directed our staff to look at the possible remedies and I have not heard back. My staff have been working through the Housing Corporation and the Department of Transportation to see what the options are and in what ways we can assist this senior. I have not heard back formally as of yet.

Mr. Chairman, that is a fairly specific question regarding doing some analysis. We don’t have the information right now, but we certainly can put it together or find the information and provide it to the Member as soon as we can.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The 2010 new guidelines that are coming into effect fairly quick in the next couple of years require all aircrafts of certain categories to be able to demonstrate that they can take off and land within certain distances on certain length runways. In this part of the country, in the Northwest Territories, we have two planes that are being challenged that the years that they were built and tested make it difficult for these companies to be able to provide that information because it’s been such a long time. The Beech aircraft and the Twin Otter are both planes that are...

Mr. Chairman, we are still not at the point where we can indicate how those programs will be delivered in the Northwest Territories and neither have we heard how Nunavut is going to get their money. There have been some communities identified in Nunavut. We will continue to follow up on what’s available and to whom. Our understanding is that right now the dollars are earmarked for fisheries and fishing communities. That includes some of the dredging programs that are being put in place for supporting the fisheries in the communities.

We make every effort to ensure that the client is fully aware of the agreements that they are signing and any kind of arrangements that are done through the Housing Corporation. In terms of how do we guarantee that the elders understand or people understand is a difficult question to answer. The response, I guess, is we do ask the client if they do understand. If there are areas that they are struggling with in terms of comprehension of what it means, then we certainly take the time and effort to make sure it’s explained to them. We really, in the last while, incorporated programs that would...

The concern that the Member raises has been very close to being a reality on a number of occasions. We are able to compensate for it by adding additional resources and making the resupply happen. But I guess in a hypothetical situation, the community that was not able to get its supplies in on time or whatever the case may be, we would probably be forced to go to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs that has emergency measures or emergency operations within their responsibilities and we would have to look at flying or another mode of getting the product in or the supplies in.

Mr. Chairman, as I indicated, we have submitted year three for consideration by the federal government. We have not submitted anything...We have and had submitted a tentative plan outlining what we would do to fast-track, however, that has not been agreed to yet. There are still a number of communities that have indicated they want to come forward and MACA has been dealing with those along with the NWT Association of Communities. So there is some discussion ongoing regarding community projects. Thank you.